SOLICITOR-GENERAL

Magistrates Courts (Clerical Errors)

Peter Bone: To ask the Solicitor-General what action is available to the Crown Prosecution Service in circumstances where a clerical error by a magistrates court clerk is preventing the re-charge of a person suspected of an offence.

Mike O'Brien: Clerical errors by a magistrates court clerk do not of themselves prevent the recharging of a suspect. A defendant may, however, challenge the decision to re-charge on the basis that a fair trial is no longer possible.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Air Quality

Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of air quality in Wirral West in each year between 2001 and 2005.

Ben Bradshaw: Local authorities (LAs) have a duty under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995 to review and assess the current, and likely future, air quality in their areas. The first step of the review and assessment process is an updating and screening assessment (USA), which is to be undertaken by all authorities to identify those matters that have changed since the last round was completed. LAs are expected to undertake the reviews and assessment every three years. Where local authorities consider that one or more of the nationally prescribed air quality objectives for each of the seven pollutants is unlikely to be met by the relevant deadline, they must declare an air quality management area (AQMA), covering the area where the problem is expected. These local authorities must then take action, along with other agencies and organisations, to work towards meeting the air quality objectives.
	When the local air quality management system was first introduced in December 1997, local authorities were advised to complete the review and assessment process by December 1999. My Department assessed Wirral's air quality report in October 1999. The report concluded that further investigation was needed in respect of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM10). Following monitoring and modelling, Wirral concluded from the additional work that they did not need to declare an air quality management area (AQMA).
	The second round of reviews and assessments started in 2003 and local authorities had to submit updating and screening assessments (USA) by the end of May 2003, and were expected to submit either a detailed assessment or a progress report by April 2004 and April 2005 respectively. Wirral submitted their USA in October 2003 and a progress report in both November 2004 and February 2006. They concluded that there was no need to proceed to a detailed assessment or declare an AQMA.
	The third round of review and assessments has now started and local authorities were asked to submit new USAs by end of April 2006. We received Wirral's report in May 2006. Our consultants have assessed the report and agreed that there is no need for Wirral to carry out further work in respect of any of the seven pollutants.

Biofuels

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs why the UK's biofuels targets are set by volume; and which other EU countries set biofuels inclusion targets by volume.

Stephen Ladyman: I have been asked to reply.
	The UK is exceptional among EU member states in setting its biofuel sales targets on a volume rather than an energy basis. We have chosen to do it this way for simplicity's sake. Transport fuels are sold and taxed on a volume basis rather than an energy content basis: motorists buy fuel by the litre rather than by the megajoule. We will be consulting in early 2007 on whether, in the longer term, volume-based targets for renewable transport fuels remain appropriate, or whether we might move towards some other form of target such as a carbon-saving target instead.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in England.

Mark Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he will announce measures which may be taken to control bovine tuberculosis in high incidence areas.

Ben Bradshaw: In line with the 'Government strategic framework for the sustainable control of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in Great Britain' the Government are working in partnership with interested parties to reduce the geographic spread of bTB and achieve a sustained reduction in high incidence areas. In the last year, the Government have introduced new, tailored policies to reflect regional variation in disease risk (for example, pre-movement testing and the more extensive use of gamma interferon).
	Farmers also have a crucial role to play in reducing the risks of introducing bTB into their herd not only by complying with statutory policies designed to limit the spread of the disease but by ensuring they apply good bio-security measures and suitable husbandry practices.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on lessons learned from the recent false BSE test in Northern Ireland.

Ben Bradshaw: The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland is undertaking a thorough investigation into events surrounding the release into the food chain of an over-30-month (OTM) bovine animal which was not tested for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). Once the report from this investigation is available, the OTM Implementation Review Group, set up by the Food Standards Agency, will consider and make recommendations on any lessons learned in Northern Ireland which should be applied to the OTM testing system throughout the UK.

Domestic Rubbish

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations his Department has received calling for the introduction of variable rate charging for domestic rubbish.

Ben Bradshaw: Variable charging for household waste was strongly supported in a range of responses to the consultation on the Review of the Waste Strategy, particularly by environmental groups and local authorities. Respondents argued that charging would reduce waste and increase recycling rates, an important element in tackling climate change.
	A summary of responses to the consultation on the Review of the Waste Strategy is available on the DEFRA website at:
	http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/wastestratreview/index.htm
	The Department has also received a range of letters, emails and parliamentary questions on this subject.

Fly-tipping

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the possible reasons for the rise in fly-tipping offences measured by the Flycapture database.

Ben Bradshaw: The number of local authorities in England submitting regular returns of fly-tipping incidents to Flycapture, the national fly-tipping database, has significantly increased from 79.5 per cent. in April 2004 when the database was first launched, to 92 per cent. in 2005-06; so one reason for the increase might simply be better reporting.
	Over time, the database will help us build up a more accurate picture of illegally dumped waste, as well as providing a useful management tool for local authorities in tackling the problem.

Lyme Bay Reef System

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  what measures he proposes to take to protect the Lyme Bay reef system;
	(2)  on what criteria the reef areas within Lyme Bay were selected for protection.

Ben Bradshaw: I have considered very seriously the action needed to protect the pink sea fans, ross corals and sunset corals, and to protect other parts of Lyme Bay's important marine environment.
	My officials and I have worked closely over recent months with English Nature (now Natural England) and representatives of the fishing industry to reach a compromise on the areas of the bay to be closed. After due consideration of all of the evidence produced, we concluded that a zonal solution, backed by independent scientific assessment and advice, was the most proportionate way to provide the necessary protection for those areas of Lyme Bay of greatest nature conservation and marine biodiversity importance.
	For pink sea fans, this solution affords seven times the protection that had existed under the previous voluntary agreement. The protection zones cover over 92 per cent. of the known pink sea fan sites in Lyme Bay. We have considered how best to give statutory effect to the voluntary closure and will be consulting on a suite of possible alternative measures early in the new year.

Mayor of London

Andrew Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what factors he took into account when deciding not to extend the Mayor of London's statutory powers to include Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1990; what assessment he has made of the impact of the decision on preparations for the 2012 Olympics; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: The Government took into account a number of factors when making its decision on the waste element of the review of the powers and responsibilities of the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. These included environmental benefits, costs, risks and views of interested parties. The Government did not consider extending the Mayor's powers to include Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as a separate issue in the review.
	No assessment has been made of the impact of the decision on preparations for the 2012 Olympics.

Recycling

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether waste recycled at a county council amenity site in a two-tier area counts towards a borough council's Best Value performance indicators for recycling.

Ben Bradshaw: Authorities (including London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs) should include the tonnage of household waste collected from civic amenity sites for the purposes of calculating best value performance indicators only if they have legal responsibility for the sites.

Recycling

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  why home composting is not  (a) recorded and  (b) rewarded in Best Value performance indicators;
	(2)  why recycling trade waste is not counted in Best Value Performance Indicators for recycling.

Ben Bradshaw: The current best value performance indicators (BVPI) on recycling, BVPI 82a and BVPI 82b, measure each local authority's achievement against its statutory performance standards for recycling and composting household waste only.
	Home composting is currently excluded from the definition of household waste for the purposes of calculating BVPI 82b, as there is, as yet, no auditable methodology for determining how much household waste is treated in this way.
	However, the impact of home composting is reflected in other BVPI indicators. Encouraging the householder to home compost will reduce total household waste arisings which will contribute positively towards BVPI 84 (kilograms of household waste collected per head of population).
	A recent White Paper, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government, sets out a new framework for local authority performance from 2008-09 with a single set of national outcome indicators (agreed through Comprehensive Spending Review) and fewer targets. We aim to announce options for future waste targets and indicators in the new year.

Single Farm Payments

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which countries in the European Union will be implementing the proposed reductions in single farm payments.

Barry Gardiner: The Commission will be obliged to propose a reduction in direct payments due to farmers in all EU15 member states if budget forecasts suggest that expenditure will come within €300,000 of the Pillar One ceiling under the terms of the so-called "financial discipline mechanism" introduced as part of the June 2003 CAP reform.

Swill Feeding

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether his Department has any outstanding requests for  (a) information and  (b) opinion from the Parliamentary Ombudsman arising from her investigation into the ban on swill feeding.

Ben Bradshaw: We have no outstanding requests for information or our views relating to the Parliamentary Ombudsman's investigations into the ban on swill feeding.

Swill Feeding

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when his Department received a draft of the report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman on the ban on swill feeding; what response he has made to it; and when that response was made.

Ben Bradshaw: Defra received a draft of the factual contents of the report on 9 February 2006 and replied with comments on the factual accuracy of the draft report on 28 February 2006.

Tidal Power

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what new initiatives he plans to introduce to encourage the use of tidal power.

Malcolm Wicks: The Government already have in place a number of initiatives that encourage the development of tidal power.
	The Government's main mechanism for supporting renewable energy is the renewables obligation (RO). The RO provides a guaranteed market for a range of renewable energy, including tidal power.
	In addition, around £16 million has been committed to support research and development of tidal power technologies under the DTI technology programme and a further £50 million has been made available under the DTI's marine renewables deployment fund to support the first larger-scale pre-commercial grid-connected wave and tidal-stream demonstration projects.
	The Government announced in the energy review report their intention to consider 'banding' the RO so as to give more support to emerging energy technologies and are currently consulting on this approach. They also announced that the DTI together with the Welsh Assembly Government, are working with the Sustainable Development Commission, the South West Regional Development Agency and other key interested parties to explore the issues arising on the tidal resource in the UK, including the Severn estuary, including potential costs and benefits of development using a range of tidal technologies and their public acceptability. The study is due to report in June 2007.

Waste Disposal

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of waste was taken to landfill in each year since 1997; what assessment has been made of the impact of landfill waste on the environment; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: The following table gives the percentage of municipal waste sent to landfill in England from 1996-97 to 2005-06:
	
		
			   Percentage 
			 1996-97 84 
			 1997-98 85 
			 1998-99 82 
			 1999-2000 80 
			 2000-01 79 
			 2001-02 78 
			 2002-03 75 
			 2003-04 72 
			 2004-05 67 
			 2005-06 62 
		
	
	Landfill can cause pollution of surface water, groundwater, soil and air, and can have an effect on the global environment, including the greenhouse effect.
	The Government are committed to reducing the UK's reliance on landfill in order to reduce its environmental impact and because it is a missed opportunity to recover value from waste. The increased cost of disposal at landfill, primarily as a result of the landfill tax, is leading to positive action by waste producers to minimise their waste arisings and deal with the waste that is produced in a more sustainable way.

Waste Management

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Government have plans to give regional development agencies a role in  (a) waste management and  (b) waste planning.

Ben Bradshaw: The consultation on the Review of the Waste Strategy contains proposals to strengthen the role of regional development agencies (RDAs) to co-ordinate waste and resource management at regional level with a particular focus on business waste management and resource efficiency. It is proposed that the RDAs will work with other regional bodies and local authorities in undertaking this role.
	The consultation is now closed and we are carefully considering the responses received. A summary of responses to the consultation was published on 2 August and is available on the DEFRA website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/wastestratreview/index.htm We intend to publish the revised Waste Strategy for England in the new year.

Waste Management

Si�n James: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what  (a) criminal conviction and  (b) other checks are made of people applying for waste management licences; and what assessment is made of their competence to operate such licences.

Ben Bradshaw: The Environment Agency (EA), as the competent authority for England and Wales, is responsible for issuing waste management licences.
	Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 (as amended), the holder of a waste management licence is required to be a 'fit and proper' person.
	A person shall be treated as not being fit and proper if it appears to the EA that she or he has been convicted of a relevant offence. The relevant offences are listed in regulation 3 of the 1994 regulations. However, the EA may exercise discretion to treat a person as fit and proper, notwithstanding the presence of a relevant conviction, and shall do so by reference to the continuance of the activities which are, or are to be, authorised by the licence and the fulfilment of the requirements of the licence.
	In addition, the operation of the activities authorised by the licence must be in the hands of a technically competent person. Technical competence is generally demonstrated through a Certificate of Technical Competence (CoTC) awarded by the Waste Management Industry Training and Advisory Board, following the successful completion of a National/Scottish/Vocational Qualification. Regulation 4 of, and schedule 1A to, the 1994 regulations sets out the qualifications required for a person to be considered technically competent for different types of waste management facilities. There are some operations that do not operate within the CoTC awards, and in these cases the EA assesses whether the applicant is technically competent.
	The licence holder also needs to be in a position to make adequate financial provision to meet the obligations arising from the licence.

Waste Strategy

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects the review of England's Waste Strategy to be published; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 16 October 2006,  Official Report, column 91OW.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Age Discrimination

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the Government plans to bring forward legislation to prevent age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services.

Meg Munn: I have been asked to reply.
	The Discrimination Law Review is considering whether there is a case for prohibiting age discrimination in the provisions of goods, facilities and services. We expect to publish a Green Paper early next year. The Green Paper is intended to lead to a Single Equality Bill, in line with the Government's manifesto commitment to introduce such a Bill this Parliament.

Civil Nuclear Constabulary

Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many officers were employed by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and its predecessor body the UK Atomic Energy Authority Police in each of the last 10 years.

Malcolm Wicks: holding answer 28 November 2006
	The numbers of officers employed by the Civil Nuclear Police Authority and its predecessor were (at 31 March each year):
	
		
			  Number 
			 1996 483 
			 1997 473 
			 1998 471 
			 1999 519 
			 2000 531 
			 2001 539 
			 2002 557 
			 2003 569 
			 2004 568 
			 2005 616 
			 2006 658

Community Interest Companies

Mark Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many companies have registered with the independent regulator as Community Interest Companies.

Margaret Hodge: The number of Community Interest Companies (CICs) registered between 1 July 2005 and 24 November 2006 when the Community Interest Company Regulations 2005 were introduced, is 591.

Energy Bills

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the average domestic  (a) electricity and  (b) gas bill was in England in each year since 1996-97.

Malcolm Wicks: The average domestic electricity and gas bills for England and Wales are shown as follows. The data presented are for standard credit customers in cash terms, and have not been adjusted for inflation.
	
		
			   
			   Electricity bill  Gas bill 
			 1996 295 330 
			 1997 283 328 
			 1998 266 315 
			 1999 260 304 
			 2000 253 295 
			 2001 246 293 
			 2002 244 310 
			 2003 245 320 
			 2004 251 333 
			 2005 281 386 
			 2006(1) 329 474 
			 (1) Provisional.

Energy Saving

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the adoption of the Merton rule by local authorities on the UK market for micro renewable technologies.

Malcolm Wicks: The adoption of the so-called Merton Rule (generally a requirement for a certain percentage of the energy needs of new developments to be provided by renewable sources) could potentially have a significant impact on the market for micro-renewables, particularly as the Minister for Housing has encouraged all local authorities to set such targets. A study carried out for my Department by the Energy Saving Trust (Potential for Microgeneration?Study and Analysis) assessed the implications of a similar policy on the microgeneration (micro-renewables and micro-CHP) industry. It concluded that such a policy could be one of the most effective ways of stimulating the mass market introduction of microgeneration in the medium to long-term, but the main beneficiaries would be CHP technologies rather than micro-renewables.

Energy Saving

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much household grant is payable under his Department's low carbon buildings programme for  (a) a micro wind turbine costing 1,500 and  (b) a solar hot water system costing 4,000.

Malcolm Wicks: Under the Low Carbon Building programme household grant for a micro wind turbine costing 150 would attract a grant of 500 (1,000 per kW limited to a maximum of 30 per cent. of eligible costs excluding VAT). For Solar thermal there is a flat grant of 400 grant regardless of the cost of the installation. It is important to note that grants levels take account of nearness to market for the different technologies.

Energy Saving

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the 2003 Energy White Paper commitment to a 2002 to 2012 solar PV Demonstration programme is achieved.

Malcolm Wicks: Since 2002 the Government have committed 41 million to the Major PV Demonstration programme and PV field trials. The Low Carbon Building programme, launched in April 2006, has a 80 million budget over three years and will support renewable technologies including Solar PV. To date, of the 4.6 million committed under the household stream of the programme (Phase 1), over 50per cent.(2.4 million) is supporting PV projects.
	In addition, the Government's micro generation strategy will be tackling those barriers hindering the development of a sustainable market for microgeneration technologies.

Energy Saving

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his estimate is of the total demand for household grants under the low carbon buildings programme in 2006-07.

Malcolm Wicks: When the Low Carbon Buildings Programme was launched in April 2006, 6.5 million was set aside for the household stream in 2006-07. In order to meet the higher than anticipated demand, a further 6.2 million of the total 28.5 million funding was re-allocated to the household stream on 25 October 2006. We continue to process grant applications for householders.

Energy Saving

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the average daily  (a) electricity demand,  (b) energy demand and  (c) total carbon emissions caused by each rise of one degree in average daily temperature from -20 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius.

Malcolm Wicks: The DTI has no estimates of impacts on energy demand over this range of temperatures. Any sustained daily temperatures recorded at the limits of these ranges are likely to result in significant changes in behaviour for which there is no historic experience. We are not aware of any studies which address this question. A comparison between the CO2 emissions estimates from the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory and temperature data from the Met Office suggest that emissions can vary by several percent from year-to-year due to temperature difference, although exact attribution of causes is not straight forward.

Energy Saving

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when household grant allocations under the Low Carbon Buildings programme will come to an end.

Malcolm Wicks: We announced on 25 October 2006 that we would be re-allocating 6.2 million of the total 28.5 million funding to the household stream. This will give a total pot of 12.7 million, which on projected demand levels should allow householder funding to continue until June 2008. By this time, some of our wider measures to promote microgeneration should be taking hold, and we believe the sector may have matured to a point where householder grants are no longer necessary.

Enterprise Areas

Mark Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many designated enterprise areas there are; and how many businesses were based in these areas  (a) in 2003 and  (b) on the latest date for which figures are available.

Margaret Hodge: There are 1,997 Enterprise Areas in the UK. These comprise the 15 per cent. most deprived of wards/areas in England and Scotland and the 42 per cent. most deprived of wards in Wales and Northern Ireland.
	The latest data publicly available show that in March 2000 there were over 235,000 VAT-registered enterprises in English Enterprise Areas and around 25,000 VAT-registered enterprises in Welsh Enterprise Areas. No data are publicly available for Scotland or Northern Ireland.
	Data on business stock in Enterprise Areas for 2003 and subsequent years are not available due to changes to the geographic functions for which this information is held. These figures could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
	The VAT registered business stock does not represent all businesses. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if their turnover falls below the compulsory VAT threshold, which was 51,000 at the start of 2000. Only 1.7 million out of 3.7 million businesses in the UK (46 per cent.) were registered for VAT at the start of 2000.

Gas Industry

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of how much more gas would enter the UK were Europe's gas markets to be liberalised.

Malcolm Wicks: holding answer 21 November 2006
	It is not practical to make an assessment of the level of gas that would flow into the UK as a result of European liberalisation. A liberalised market would lead to increased imports and exports of gas between the UK and Europe in turn leading to more efficient allocation of resources and potential benefits to consumers in both UK and continental Europe. In particular improved liquidity of gas in European markets could provide incremental gas in times of demand peaks and lead to a reduction in price volatility in the longer term.

Gas Industry

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will assess the effects on UK gas prices of the storage practices of overseas gas companies which import gas into the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Malcolm Wicks: holding answer 23 November 2006
	Subject to their regulatory obligations, it is up to gas suppliers how they balance their supply-demand position. The European Commission has undertaken a sectoral inquiry, which has identified access to long-term downstream contracts, capacity on pipelines and gas storage as priorities for individual competition investigations. The Commission aims to reach conclusions by January 2007, and will then pursue infringement of EU competition law as appropriate.
	It is not practical to provide the particular estimates that the hon. Member requests, because that would require detailed market assessments against a hypothetical model of how the continental and GB gas storage markets might operate. However, Ofgem recently estimated that around an extra 1 billion could have been added to the cost of GB wholesale gas in winter 2005-06 as a result of gas flows from the Bacton-Zeebrugge Interconnector failing to respond to the relative UK and Continental gas prices. This can be found at:
	http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem/press/fact-sheets.jsp.

Halliburton

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many private finance initiative and public private partnership contracts with his Department and its agencies have been won by Halliburton or its subsidiaries in each year since 1997; what the terms were of each contract; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Fitzpatrick: There are no PFI/PPP contracts between the Department (or its agencies) and Halliburton and its subsidiaries after 1997.

Medical Research Council

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of the Medical Research Council's funding in each of the last five years was spent on research into pain management.

Malcolm Wicks: The percentage of the Medical Research Council (MRC's) total expenditure on research which has relevance to pain management for each of the last five years is:
	
		
			   Percentage 
			 2000-01 0.14 
			 2001-02 0.10 
			 2002-03 0.10 
			 2003-04 0.07 
			 2004-05 0.10

Private Finance Initiative

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by his Department which has reached financial close; over what period repayments will take place; and what the total cost of repayment will be.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The DTI holds one PFI contract, this is with its IT provider Fujitsu. The financial close for this service was June 1999. I am not able to provide financial information set against this contract as it is commercially sensitive.

Regional Development Agencies

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to extend the powers and responsibilities of regional development agencies; and if he will make a statement.

Margaret Hodge: The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR 2007) will identify whether investments and reforms are neededlooking across all areas of Government expenditureto ensure that the UK is best placed to face the global challenge. One of the policy reviews linking into CSR 2007 is the Sub-national Economic Development and Regeneration Review. This provides an opportunity for Government to ensure that the regional development agencies have the appropriate powers and responsibilities to meet the long term challenges. The review will include a thorough assessment of the RDAs and will look at ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of sub-national structures.

Renewable Energy

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what he has assessed as the highest feasible percentage of energy which can be derived from each renewable source; what steps would be necessary to achieve the figure in each case; by what date he estimates each figure could be achieved; and if he will make a statement.

Malcolm Wicks: The Renewables Innovation Review, conducted jointly by the DTI and the Carbon Trust and which reported in February 2004 looked at the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the different renewable technologies from the perspective of meeting the 2010 target (10 per cent. of electricity being generated from eligible renewable sources by 2010) and on the longer term renewables aspiration (20 per cent. by 2020) and our 2050 carbon reduction goal. The review also considered mechanisms needed to bring each technology forward. A copy of the review can be found on the DTI website at:
	http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/policy/govemment-renewable-energy-policy/renewables-innovation-review/pagel5308.html
	In order to help bring on emerging renewable technologies, the Government are currently consulting on a number of proposals to make changes to the Renewables Obligation. These include the idea of technology banding, which would allow emerging technologies to obtain more funding under the Renewables Obligation than the more established technologies.
	A copy of the consultation document can be found at:
	http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page34162.html

Renewable Energy

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to extend the Renewables Obligation after 2015; and if he will make a statement.

Malcolm Wicks: The Renewables Obligation already runs to 2027. There are no plans to extend it beyond that period. Current Obligation levels are set out to 2015-16. The Government have committed, in the recent Energy Review, to raise Obligation levels from their current maximum of 15.4 per cent. to 20 per cent. on a headroom basis.

Smart Meters

Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps he has taken to promote the use of smart meters in households to measure power consumption in real-time.

Malcolm Wicks: Giving consumers information about their energy consumption should help them to manage it better, saving them money and reducing carbon emissions. For this reason, the Government issued a consultation document Energy Billing and Metering: Changing Customer Behaviour: An Energy Review Consultation on 14 November. The Government also announced earlier this year that they would co-fund with companies an energy demand reduction pilot study of the use of smart meters and associated feedback devices. This will start shortly.

Supply2.gov.uk

Mark Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small businesses have used the customer support helpdesk since its launch on the supply2.gov.uk website.

Margaret Hodge: From its launch on 31 March 2006 and up to the end of October, the supply2.gov.uk customer support help desk received 9390 e-mails and 391 phone calls from suppliers.

Workplace Bullying

John MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures his Department is taking to eradicate bullying in the workplace.

Jim Fitzpatrick: holding answer 28 November 2006
	DTI's Partnership at Work Fund has made available 1 million to a project led by Amicus to address the issue of bullying in the workplace. The project partners include BT, Legal and General, BAE Systems and Royal Mail. The project promotes best practice and workplace initiatives to tackle bullying.
	Legislation protects workers from the most serious kinds of bullying, for instance in cases of discrimination or harassment. The Government publish guidance booklets on how this legislation can be used, and ACAS provides a nationwide telephone advice line offering assistance to employers and employees on bullying and other employment issues.
	These measures support the Government's policy aim that workers should be able to work without fear of being bullied or harassed by employers, fellow employees or anyone else.

TRANSPORT

Drink-Driving

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to reduce drinking and driving in the UK.

Stephen Ladyman: The Government's priority for reducing drinking and driving is through a combination of effective law enforcement, maintaining a very tough penalties regime and continuing investment in high-profile national publicity campaigns to discourage drink driving.
	To this end, we have given the police new powers to carry out evidential roadside breath testing, subject to type approval of appropriate equipment. This is supported by a number of other measures in the Road Safety Act 2006 which are designed to deter drink driving and reduce re-offending.
	These include enabling powers to require serious, including repeat, offenders to retake the driving test at the end of their period of disqualification; to improve the operation of the drink drive rehabilitation scheme; to close certain loopholes in the law relating to high risk offenders; and to establish a statutory alcohol ignition interlock programme.
	We will shortly be launching the THINK! 2006 Christmas drink drive publicity campaign jointly with the Association of Chief Police Officers. This will be supported by an extended police enforcement campaign throughout December to ensure that publicity and enforcement activity is co-ordinated to have the greatest impact on driver behaviour.

Driving Offences (Cambridgeshire)

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of drivers in Cambridgeshire driving without  (a) tax,  (b) insurance and  (c) a driving licence.

Stephen Ladyman: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 20 November 2006,  Official Report, column 36W, to the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands) for overall estimates. There are no separate estimates for Cambridgeshire alone.

Foreign Hauliers

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the distance-based charging system for foreign hauliers.

Stephen Ladyman: The Government are continuing to investigate options for distance-based road charging, which would include the charging of goods vehicles. The Department has now launched a programme of research into the practical application of distance-based charging with the publication of a Prior Information Notice on 18 July this year inviting potential partners to submit expressions of interest for a programme of demonstrations.
	In addition, we will continue to monitor developments in those European countries that already charge lorries according to the distance travelled, including Germany and Switzerland.

Foreign Hauliers

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of digital tachographs in preventing owners of foreign vehicles from infringing the Working Time Directive.

Stephen Ladyman: Digital tachographs became mandatory for all new vehicles (in-scope of the EU drivers' hours rules) entering into service from 1 May this year and it is still too early to assess their full impact. However, as for the most part, compliance with the limits set out in the Road Transport Working Time Directive (2002/15/EC) can only be determined over lengthy reference periods, it is unlikely that the digital tachograph generated data available with foreign vehicles/drivers at the roadside would be sufficient for enforcement of those limits. Enforcers would also need to establish when the reference period started and whether the driver was able to take advantage of any of the available derogations.

Foreign Hauliers

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what penalties can be imposed on owners of foreign vehicles who commit traffic offences in the UK.

Stephen Ladyman: The full range of road traffic penalties is applicable to owners of foreign vehicles if they commit offences in Great Britain. The same is true of Northern Ireland although not all the relevant offences and penalties there are exactly equivalent to Great Britain. However, provided their vehicles were compliant with the law of the country in which they were registered, the owners would not be subject to prosecution for offences relating, for example, to vehicle excise duty, insurance, and roadworthiness.
	At the present time only persons holding GB or Northern Ireland licences are eligible for an offer of a fixed penalty in respect of an endorsable offence; others have to be dealt with by a court. Provisions are made in the Road Safety Act 2006 for these drivers to be allowed to pay a deposit in lieu of a fixed penalty, having the equivalent effect. There is a further provision that would allow enforcement authorities to issue a fixed penalty to a non-GB licence holder if they can assure themselves, from any driver record that may be held at DVLA, that the driver in question does not have a record of endorsements that would render him liable to disqualification if he were dealt with by a court.
	These provisions can be implemented only when all the necessary administrative arrangements are in place.

Greater Western Franchise

Theresa May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport why the service level commitment for the Greater Western Franchise excludes  (a) Wargrave and Shiplake on the Henley-on-Thames line and  (b) Cookham on the Marlow line.

Tom Harris: The service level commitment for the Greater Western franchise does not exclude Wargrave, Shiplake or Cookham stations on the Henley-on-Thames and Marlow branches.

Rail Services

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much public money was spent per head of population on rail services in each region of the UK in each of the last five years.

Stephen Timms: I have been asked to reply.
	Total Expenditure on Services (TES) spending by country and region is available in PESA 2006 (cm 6811) Chapter 7. These regional spending statistics use the concept of identifiable spending where Government spending is allocated to the region or country that benefits from the spending. Some spending cannot be allocated to a region or country as it is for the benefit of the UK as a whole (e.g. defence spending). Table 7.11 presents country and regional spending per head for 2000-01 to 2005-06 on Transport on this identifiable, who benefits, basis.
	We do not currently publish these regional analyses at a sub-function level. We have however, recently released the underlying CRA database that underlies the Chapter 7 tables. This is available at:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/economic_data_and_tools/finance_spending_statistics/pes_cra/country_region.cfm

Sirens

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidelines his Department has issued on the use of sirens by emergency ambulance vehicle operators during the quiet hours.

Rosie Winterton: I have been asked to reply.
	No guidelines have been issued by the Department on this subject. Use of sirens on emergency ambulance vehicles is a local matter and national health service ambulance trusts may have their own policy and guidelines on this issue.

Speed Cameras

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many speed cameras there are in Romford; and what percentage this represents of the total number of speed cameras in the London borough of Havering.

Stephen Ladyman: The Department does not hold information on the number of speed camera sites in Romford. This information may be available from the London Safety Camera Partnership.

Working Time Directive

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many hauliers have been prosecuted for infringements of the Working Time Directive in  (a) the West Midlands and  (b) the UK in the last 12 months.

Stephen Ladyman: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 28 November 2006,  Official Report, columns 528-9W, given to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael).

LEADER OF THE HOUSE

DHL

Anne Milton: To ask the Leader of the House how much his Office paid to DHL in each financial year between 1997-98 and 2005-06.

Jack Straw: Nothing.

Departmental Staff

Roger Williams: To ask the Leader of the House how many  (a) marketing officers,  (b) communications officers and  (c) press officers are employed in the Privy Council Office (PCO); and what the total expenditure on communications for the PCO was on (i) Government Information and Communication Service staff and (ii) other (A) press officers, (B) special advisers and (C) staff in the last year for which figures are available.

Jack Straw: The Office of the Leader of the House of Commons has one Press Officer on loan from, and employed by, the Cabinet Office's Communications Group. My Office has incurred no expenditure on communications staff.

International GCSE

Nick Gibb: To ask the Leader of the House whether the Privy Council Office recognises the International GCSE as an alternative to the GCSE where this is a qualification relevant to a post in the Office being advertised.

Jack Straw: To date, the Privy Council Office has never been presented with this qualification. If GCSEs were a requirement for some recruitment exercises and this qualification were provided, the Department would consider this as an alternative, but would seek further advice from the National Recognition Information Centre for the UK.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Bullying

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidelines his Department has given to schools on tackling bullying.

Jim Knight: The Department has issued a range of guidelines to schools, local authorities and parents about bullying. We have worked with a number of organisations, including the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the National Strategies, to disseminate this guidance. In addition to our general guidance on bullying which we are currently revising, we are producing specific guidance on tackling prejudice-driven bullying and cyber-bullying. During anti-bullying week we announced a series of new initiatives to strengthen and improve the support and guidance we and our partners provide.

Children's Centres

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much the Government is contributing through Sure Start towards the establishment of new children's centres in the Bristol local authority area.

Beverley Hughes: A total of 3,392,280 children's centres capital and 1,495,450 revenue was allocated to Bristol local authority in the first phase of the children's centres programme (2004-06). A total of 15,884,712 General Sure Start Grant (GSSG) funding has been made available to Bristol over the next two years (2006-08), comprised of 5,219,964 capital and 10,664,748 revenue to support the delivery of our ten year strategy for child care. Provided they meet their targets, local authorities including Bristol have been given flexibility on how the funding is apportioned to individual programmes. Overall, we have made a combined total of 20,772,442 GSSG funding available to the local authority between 2004 and 2008.

Children's Centres

Andy Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding was made available for children's centres in Loughborough constituency in the last financial year for which figures are available.

Beverley Hughes: Information provided to the DfES by Leicestershire local authority shows that they are currently planning to develop six children's centres in the constituency of Loughborough. Two of these children's centres are now designated.
	A total of 918,890 children's centre capital and 196,740 revenue was allocated to Leicestershire local authority in 2004-06. For 2006-08 a total of 21,963,950 General Sure Start Grant was allocated: 12,842,812 revenue funding and 9,121,138 capital funding. Provided they meet their targets, Leicestershire have been given flexibility on how the funding is apportioned to individual programmes.

Environmentally Sustainable Behaviour

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures are in place to promote environmentally sustainable behaviour within schools and other educational establishments.

Jim Knight: The Department's Sustainable Development Action Plan sets out how we will incorporate Sustainable Development into our policies. We have also asked our delivery partners in further and higher education to prepare sustainable development action plans to ensure that it is embedded across all sectors of education. The Action Plan is available in the House of Commons Library.
	Our aim is for all schools to become sustainable schools by 2020. We recently consulted on a sustainable schools strategy setting out a national framework of eight 'doorways' for schools to achieve this. The strategy is supported with a dedicated online resource:
	www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools.
	There is an ongoing year of action to support schools to become sustainable. The Department is working with partners to develop a range of resources such as, the recently published 'top ten tips' that schools can adopt to reduce energy and water-running costs. The Department has also offered local authorities an advance of capital investment in 2007-08, worth 375 million, and encouraged them to use this to improve the energy and water efficiency of schools.

Nursery Education

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on what basis nursery providers can choose to opt out of the provisions in the Childcare Act 2006 that requires providers caring for children up to age five to register on the Early Years register and deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage; and what the consequences are for the providers opting out.

Beverley Hughes: The Childcare Act 2006 puts in place an integrated framework of learning, development and welfare requirements to be met by those providing care to young children. It is intended to increase coherence, provide a flexible approach to care and learning, raise quality across the early years sector and help children to achieve better outcomes.
	Those providing care for children aged zero to five years will be required to join the Early Years Register. In order to ensure a proportionate approach to regulation and inspection, exemption from compulsory registration will be allowed under regulation to maintain the existing regime whereby certain forms of care, for example short term, occasional and baby-sitting services, are not required to register. Providers exempt from compulsory registration will be able to join the Ofsted Childcare Register voluntarily and enjoy the benefits it brings.
	The Childcare Act also includes a power to exempt early years providers from all or part of the learning and development requirements under the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We expect that exemptions or modifications in respect of providers to be exceptional and for short limited periods. During the period of such an exemption or modification, local authorities would be expected to use their powers under Section 13 to support the provider to meet the full learning and development requirements. There are no exemptions from EYFS welfare requirements and the learning and develop requirements will be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the vast majority of providers.
	The Department will be consulting on both types of exemption in due course.

NVQs

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the implications for the extended school day of his proposals to require those seeking to work in delivering these provisions to hold national vocational qualifications.

Beverley Hughes: Extended schools provide access to a wide range of services which, depending on the nature of the activity, may require staff to have different skills and qualificationsfor example those required for registration of childcare by Ofsted. Beyond this, it is for schools and local authorities to satisfy themselves that those delivering extended services have the levels of skills and qualifications appropriate to the services offered. They are best placed to determine this, taking into account the roles of individual employees and local circumstances.

Special Measures

Stephen Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which schools have been in special measures for more than two years; and when each school went into special measures.

Jim Knight: The following table shows the schools that have been in special measures for longer than two years and the dates on which they went into this Ofsted category.
	
		
			  URN  School Name  LA Area  Phase  Date into special measures 
			 107364 Rhodesway School Bradford Secondary 12 December 2002 
			 107228 Usher Street Primary School and Nursery Bradford Primary 10 July 2003 
			 120550 The Pinchbeck East Church of England Primary School Lincolnshire Primary 14 July 2004 
			 110492 Quarrendon Upper School Buckinghamshire Secondary 30 September 2004 
			 115777 Cheltenham Kingsmead Gloucestershire Secondary 10 November 2004 
			 122121 Weavers School Northamptonshire Secondary 18 November 2004 
			 112399 Newman Catholic School Cumbria Secondary 19 November 2004 
		
	
	The number of schools in special measures for over two years has reduced from 23 at the end of the 2004/05 academic year to the current figure of seven.
	Ofsted judge that six of the seven schools are making satisfactory progress. The exception is Usher Street in Bradford which is going to be closed. Rhodesway is the secondary school that has been in the category the longest and it due to become an academy.

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION

Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Stephen Williams: To ask the honourable Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what progress has been made on plans to offset the carbon dioxide emissions produced by overseas select committee visits.

Nick Harvey: The Commission and the Members Estimate Committee decided on 19 June to make annual contributions to the Government's carbon offsetting fund to cover the carbon costs of parliamentary air travel booked through the parliamentary travel office. The House of Lords House Committee decided to do likewise on 18 July. Carbon dioxide emissions resulting from overseas select committee visits will be offset as part of this arrangement. A first payment, covering the current financial year, is expected to be made in April 2007.

Members' Portraits

John Pugh: To ask the honourable Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how much has been spent on paintings and photographs of hon. Members in the current Parliament displayed on the House estate in the last five years.

Nick Harvey: A total of 39,177.50 was spent from the House Vote on paintings and photographs of current Members of Parliament acquired in the last five years. Twenty works were acquired for this sum.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Aid Statistics

Peter Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment his Department makes of the macroeconomic effects of aid flows on individual recipient countries.

Hilary Benn: DFID commissioned the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) to look into the macroeconomic impact of large aid flows in Mauritania, Mozambique Sierra Leone and Tanzania. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) undertook similar work looking at Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.
	The findings of this work were discussed with a group of interested recipient country finance ministers, central bank governors and officials from developing countries at a joint IMF/DFID at seminar in April 2006. Both pieces of work showed that countries could, with appropriate economic policies, manage the impact of large scale aid inflows.
	The issue is obviously more of a concern for countries where aid is a relatively larger proportion of national income. In Uganda for example, DFID has funded work to look explicitly at the macroeconomic impacts of larger aid flows and the particular worry of so called Dutch Disease effects, which can hamper exports. This followed explicit concerns from the Ugandan Government regarding increases in aid. We have also recently looked at exchange rate effects in Zambia, although aid flows are only part of the picture in the appreciated exchange rate.
	While in most cases we would expect the IMF and recipient countries to do detailed macroeconomic analysis on this issue, DFID works with both to inform its country assistance plans and to provide assistance where appropriate.

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the  (a) names and  (b) qualifications are of the members of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission established under section 13 of the International Development Act 2002.

Gareth Thomas: There are currently 14 members of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission:
	Denis BlightAO, PhD, FRSA
	Dr. Monica DarnboroughCBE, BSc, PhD
	Sir Brian DonnellyKBE, CMG
	Professor Ann FloydMA, PhD
	Dr. Norman GeddesPhD, BSc, CPhys, FinstP
	Professor Trudy Harpham (Chair)BA, PhD
	Ms Sharon HuttlyMA, MSc
	Professor David JohnsCBE, DSc, FREng
	Professor John MorganPhD, FRSA, FRAI
	Dr. Hilary Perraton (Deputy Chair)MA, PhD, DUniv
	Professor Gurharpal SinghMA, PhD
	Professor Martin SnaithQBE, FREng
	Professor William StephensFIAgrE, CEnv
	Professor Tim UnwinMA, PhD

Gender Equality

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when he expects to publish his Department's gender equality scheme.

Gareth Thomas: The Department for International Development will publish its gender equality scheme by 30 April 2007.

Gender Equality

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he is taking to ensure that  (a) his Department and  (b) the non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies for which he is responsible are taking steps to meet the requirements of the forthcoming duty on public bodies (i) to end unlawful discrimination and harassment and (ii) to promote equality between women and men.

Gareth Thomas: Promoting gender equality is at the heart of DFID's mission to reduce global poverty. DFID is strengthening its work on gender equality globally, through a gender action plan. This fulfils a commitment made in the Government's recent White Paper.
	DFID, in consultation with employees and stakeholders, will also publish a gender equality scheme by 30 April 2007. This will conform to the approach set out in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities)(Statutory Duties) Order 2006 (No. 2930) when it comes into force on 6 April 2007.
	The scope of this legislation applies to those functions which directly affect the UK public. However, in line with our approach to race and disability legislation, DFID is fully committed to developing good practice on gender across all our overseas functions.
	The gender equality scheme will (1) ensure there is no unlawful discrimination or harassment and (2) promote equality between men and women.
	The scheme will be reviewed every three years, in consultation with employees and stakeholders. DFID will monitor and report on progress.
	DFID is responsible for one active non-departmental public body, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. This encourages applications from women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and disabled people, in line with equality of opportunity.

Global Poverty

Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what resources have been allocated to promote awareness and understanding of global poverty under section 4 of the International Development Act 2002 in each of the last three financial years; and if he will make a statement.

Hilary Benn: The amount spent through DFID's Building Support for Development budget line, to raise awareness and understanding of global poverty issues is:
	
		
			
			 2004-05 8,840,000 
			 2005-06 9,730,000 
			 2006-07 (1)12 million 
			 (1 )Budget allocation

HIV/AIDS

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what progress his Department has made in increasing the  (a) coverage and  (b) uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in sub-Saharan Africa; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what steps his Department is taking to reduce the levels of mother-to-child HIV transmissions within developing countries; and if he will make a statement;
	(3)  what his assessment is of the provision of and access to  (a) Nevirapine and  (b) Cotrimoxazole to (i) expectant mothers, (ii) mothers in labour and (iii) their newborn children in developing countries; and if he will make a statement;
	(4)  what steps he is taking to promote the prevention of parent-to-child transmission of HIV in developing countries; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) is now established as an effective, feasible, affordable and achievable intervention to limit the number of babies born with HIV.
	There has been some progress with coverage. Globally, over 100 countries are now implementing PMTCT programs, yet only 13 developing countries have achieved national coverage. Coverage of PMTCT programmes is particularly low in sub-Saharan Africa where national rates vary from 1 to 10 per cent. of pregnant women receiving services.
	We know that proven interventions, such as HIV testing followed by treatment with Nevirapine can reduce this risk to only 5 per cent. Only 8 per cent. of women with HIV in poor countries have access to such treatment.
	DFID is concerned at the low distribution of the life-saving, cheap antibiotic, cotrimoxazole; its efficacy in reducing morbidity and mortality of children with HIV was established during DFID funded research. The need to scale-up access to cotrimoxazole was highlighted at the UK/UNICEF hosted Global Partners Forum on Children and AIDS. UN agencies, notably The World Health Organisation and UNICEF have pledged to step up efforts to support countries to scale up provision of cotrimoxazole as part of efforts to scale up health systems more broadly.
	Recent DFID-supported research in the Republic of Congo and Uganda demonstrates that pregnant women with HIV are between four to five times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth than non-infected women. When a mother dies in childbirth the baby is up to 10 times more likely to die within the first year of life, whether or not they have HIV themselves.
	These are some of the reasons why DFID is increasing its focus on Preventing Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT).
	In Zimbabwe, DFID is initiating a 25 million project designed to address maternal and newborn health in a comprehensive way including: diagnosing HIV in pregnant women; improved obstetric care, increasing access to Nevirapine and other pre- and postnatal health services, nutritional monitoring of mother and baby with treatment for mother, father and child if they have HIV.
	In Malawi, where DFID is the major donor in the health sector, with an investment of 100 million over the period 2004-10, a rapid scale up in PMTCT services is taking place with the aim that every pregnant woman visiting a health facility will have access to HIV prevention and treatment services. As countries scale up the provision and availability of anti-retrovirals, they also have to ensure a corresponding increase in uptake of services. In Zambia, we support UNICEF's expansion of prevention of mother to child transmission.
	Stigma and discrimination remain major barriers to uptake of PMTCT and other HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa. DFID is helping to tackle thisfor example by funding education and mass-media campaigns in Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. We have also supported training of journalists across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on sensitive reporting on HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of progress towards the 2010 targets set out through the United Nations General Assembly Special Session commitment on HIV and AIDS; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what progress has been made towards the 2010 target of HIV treatment for all; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: The commitment made at the UN General Assembly's High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June 2006, to pursue all necessary efforts to scale up towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010, was a significant step forward. The General Assembly further committed that countries would set, in 2006, ambitious national targets, including interim targets for 2008, in the context of national plans for scaling up towards comprehensive plans for universal access.
	I understand through UNAIDS that over 80 countries have provided target data and that over 40 have set outcome targets for all prevention, treatment and care. We look forward to these plans being reviewed, seeing the completion of the process to set targets and for countries to set fully costed, credible plans. In this way the international community, with partner governments, can move ahead with implementation of effective national plans for universal access.

HIV/AIDS

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress his Department has made in making access to, and uptake of, CD4 counts and antiretroviral therapies as wide as possible within rural, developing communities; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: The 2006 World Health Organization guidelines on adult antiretroviral treatment in resource-limited settings recommend that national treatment programmes should invest in CD4 cell counting in order to improve the identification of patients in need of treatment.
	However, CD4 cell counting requires expensive laboratory equipment and trained staff, and may not be practical at primary care level, since blood samples must be transported to laboratories. Efforts are continuing to reduce the cost of CD4 cell counting. The Department for International Development will continue to monitor the cost of CD4 cell-counting technology and international efforts to reduce costs.
	DFID is supporting the scaling up of AIDS treatment services, including CD4 cell-counting and anti-retrovirals in a growing number of countries worldwide. Examples include:
	Zimbabwe, where an 18 million programme aims to increase by more than 50 per cent., to 20,000, the number of people on anti-retroviral therapy. This is part of a multi-donor partnership, including WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS and NGOs. DFID is also supporting ART provision in other countries in Africa including DRC, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
	In India, DFID is planning a programme of support to the new National AIDS Control programme. This will involve the setting up of 250 district-level ART clinics, which will provide CD4 testing and scale up treatment access ten-fold, to 400,000 people.
	DFID is supporting the Government of Brazil's STD/AIDS programme to provide technical assistance to 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Main elements of this programme include the provision of first line ARV drugs and CD4 cell counting. DFID funded a pilot programme in Uruguay to provide essential laboratory equipment, including CD4 cell counting, backed up with technical training. This enabled key lessons to be learnt.
	DFID is supporting ARV and CD4 scale-up both through direct bilateral programmes focussed on AIDS and more broadly on scaling up health systems, as well through our investments in multilateral instruments, notably the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), to which we gave 100 million this year. The GFATM has provided anti-retroviral therapy to over 600,000 people in developing countries.

Private Finance Initiative

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by his Department which has reached financial close; over what period repayments will take place; and what the total cost of repayment will be.

Hilary Benn: DFID has no private finance initiative projects and therefore none which has reached financial close.

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assistance his Department has provided to the Beja people of eastern Sudan to combat  (a) food insecurity,  (b) child mortality and  (c) gender inequality.

Hilary Benn: DFID does not collate information on an ethnic basis from eastern Sudan: our programmes aim to help poor people living there, regardless of ethnic origin.
	Much of our work in the region is focused on providing greater food security, and preventing child malnutrition. We are helping in a number of ways. DFID is supporting two agencies, Oxfam, and Action Contre la Faim (ACF), who are working to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, for example by developing water resources, by re-stocking livestock, and by relieving many of the poorest agro-pastoralists in Red Sea state from chronic indebtedness. Through the UN we are also funding a number of agencies supporting food security and livelihoods initiatives.
	We are supporting ACF's child feeding programme in Red Sea state, which is providing life saving supplemental and therapeutic feeding to under-fives. The programme is also attempting to better understand and address the causes of child malnutrition, particularly access to clean water and sanitation. Our contributions to the UN are also supporting nutrition programming in the east.
	DFID is helping to finance GOAL's primary health care programme in Kassala state. This provides basic and life-saving health services to adults and children.
	While DFID does not have a specific gender programme in eastern Sudan, we work hard to ensure that our partners integrate the needs of women into all the programmes we support.

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans he has for mine clearance in the East of Sudan.

Hilary Benn: Sudan's borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea are thought to be heavily mined, and the signing of the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement brings hope that these areas will be opened for mine marking, clearance, and education by the UN and other agencies. Together with the lack of basic services, the presence of mines in the East is considered to be a major deterrent to return for both the internally displaced and refugees.
	This year, with others, DFID has provided around $175,000 in support of mine action in eastern Sudan, through a pooled humanitarian funding mechanism administered by the UN. Next year's allocations have yet to be determined.

World Bank

Jeffrey M Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will withhold the UK's contribution to the World Bank until the fundamental reforms agreed at the G8 summit have been implemented.

Hilary Benn: I do not believe that withholding UK funding to the World Bank would be appropriate. We provide core funding to the World Bank for three-year periods and it is right that we honour our commitments. Last year, the UK announced a contribution of 1,330 million to the 14th replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA-14), the arm of the World Bank which provides grants and concessional loans to the world's poorest countries. Withholding such funding would be damaging to the poor. It would mean that valuable development projects would have to be stopped. It would also mean that our share of the debt cancellation agreed at Gleneagles would be unfunded. The UK worked hard to achieve the debt deal, which has already cancelled all the debts owed to the IMF, the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank of 20 of the poorest countries in the world.
	Last year the UK also announced a supplementary contribution of 100 million to IDA-14, linked to progress by the World Bank in working more effectively with other donors and reforming the way it attaches conditions to its aid. We have paid the first 50 million following satisfactory Bank progress against the agreed performance indicators. Payment of the second 50 million will depend on whether the Bank has made satisfactory progress in implementing its Good Practice Principles for conditionally adopted last year. We are currently considering a report on this.
	At the Gleneagles summit last year, the G8 agreed that developing countries should
	decide, plan and sequence their economic policies to fit with their own development strategies, for which they should be accountable to their people.
	We strongly endorse these principles and will continue to encourage the World Bank to promote them in all its operations.
	The July White Paper on International Development acknowledges the critical role which the World Bank plays in providing development assistance to developing countries. It also makes clear that the World Bank must reform if it is to remain relevant in a changing world. Four priorities are identified for the Bank:
	play a leading role in providing more long-term, predictable funding for developing countries;
	find new ways to work with middle income countries as they still face major development changes and are shaping the wider world;
	help tackle the global challenges facing developing countriesfocusing urgently on a financing framework for clean energy and adaptation to climate change, and forging a new international framework to help developing countries tackle corruption and improve their governance;
	help developing countries obtain more influence in the World Bank, where they are weakly represented on the boards, with voting rights decided by financial contributions. This balance must change. The Bank must do more to support developing country priorities and not impose economic policy conditions in areas like privatisation and trade liberalisation. And if their members demand it, the Bank should be ready to change how members are represented, and how decisions are madefor example through greater voting rights for poor countries.
	We are actively pursuing these reforms in collaboration with like-minded partners.

DEFENCE

Afghanistan

Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the head of Southern Command ISAF Forces in Afghanistan has requested  (a) Warrior and  (b) any form of mechanised infantry to be brought into Helmand Province.

Adam Ingram: Should Commander RC(South) judge that he requires additional forces, he can request them through his NATO chain of command. Should such a request be endorsed by the NATO military staffs, it is added to the NATO Combined Joint Statement of Requirement for the mission and NATO member states are then invited to meet those requirements. No such requirement for mechanised infantry in Helmand Province has been promulgated, but force levels are kept under review.

Operational Theatres (Personnel Movement)

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in which service, and at what rank, is the single responsible officer for the movement of British Service and Government personnel to and from operational theatres.

Adam Ingram: holding answer 27 November 2006
	The Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) is responsible for the command and control of the 'Coupling Bridge', across which British Service and some Government personnel travel between the home base (largely the UK and Germany) and the operational theatres. CJO is selected from each of the three services in rotation, and holds the rank of lieutenant-general, vice-admiral or air marshal.

Pensions

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Gurkhas retired after 15 years service in the last five years; what the average pension paid to Gurkhas was in each year; and if he will make a statement.

Derek Twigg: The following table shows the number of Gurkha soldiers who left the Army upon completion of their service in each of the last five years.
	
		
			  Financial year  Number of soldiers( 1) 
			 2001-02 210 
			 2002-03 250 
			 2003-04 260 
			 2004-05 240 
			 2005-06 250 
			 Total 1,200 
			 (1) Rounded to nearest 10. 
		
	
	The length of service for each soldier is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Under their terms of engagement, soldiers of the rank of corporal and below may serve in the Brigade of Gurkhas for up to a maximum of 15 years, which earns them an immediate pension under the Gurkha Pension Scheme. 99 per cent. of Gurkhas serve through to the 15-year point.
	The information needed to calculate the average pension paid to Gurkhas in each of the last five years is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Recruitment

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the  (a) recruitment target and  (b) recruitment level achieved was for each pinch point trade for the (i) Army, (ii) Navy and (iii) RAF in the last 12 months.

Derek Twigg: Details of financial year 2005-06 targets and achievements in each of the service's recruiting pinch point trades were as follows:
	
		
			  Naval service 
			Achievement 
			  Branch  Target  Number  Percentage 
			 AircrewPilot 45 44 98 
			 Aircrew Observer 41 37 90 
			 Engineering OfficerAir 15 12 80 
			 Engineering OfficerWeapons 16 12 75 
			 Engineering OfficerMechanical 25 21 84 
			 Royal Marine General Duties Other Rank 1,219 1,155 95 
			 Submarine RatingsOperator Maintainer 123 126 102 
			 Submarine RatingsSteward 18 7 39 
			 Submarine RatingsWriter 7 3 43 
		
	
	
		
			  Army 
			Achievement 
			  Trade  Target  Number  Percentage 
			 RE Fitter General 117 101 86 
			 RE C3 Systems 168 216 128 
			 RE Geographical 62 80 129 
			 R Signals Information Systems Engineer 54 41 80 
			 RLC Petroleum Operator 82 90 110 
			 RLC Chefs 428 298 70 
			 RLC Ammo Technician 125 134 107 
			 RLC Movement Controller 54 27 50 
			 REME Vehicle Mechanic 552 681 123 
			 REME Armourer 78 96 123 
			 REME Recovery Mechanic 109 103 94 
			 Int Corps Operator Military Intelligence 164 154 94 
		
	
	
		
			  RAF 
			Achievement 
			  Branch  Target  Number  Percentage 
			 Medical Officer 35 30 86 
			 Legal Officer 5 3 60 
			 Princess Mary's RAF Nursing Services 14 17 121 
			 Weapon System Operator Linguist 10 10 100 
			 Musician 10 10 100 
			 Regiment Gunner 176 187 106

NORTHERN IRELAND

Children/Young People Strategy

Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of barriers to funding arising from the Children and Young People's Strategy being applied to projects on the ground.

Maria Eagle: From the launch of the 102.3 million children and young people's funding package in March 2006, we have closely monitored both how the package has been allocated and the rate of spend. Monitoring will continue in the second year of the fund through to March 2008 to ensure that the package total is spent in full.

Invest Northern Ireland

Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what total amount of Invest Northern Ireland financial assistance was given to Trivirix before its closure in 2005; and whether Invest Northern Ireland has conducted an inquiry into the closure.

Maria Eagle: Prior to the administration date of 20 February 2006 Trivirix was offered 4,258,000 of Invest Northern Ireland assistance of which 2,597,000 was paid.
	Invest Northern Ireland did not judge it necessary to carry out an inquiry following the closure as Invest NI had maintained regular contact with Trivirix throughout the period preceding the administration.

Local Government Finance

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the proposed cap on domestic rates announced at the St. Andrews summit will be a cap on  (a) yearly percentage increases in the equivalent tax rate and  (b) the maximum bill that can be levied; and from what budget it will be funded.

David Hanson: The proposed cap on domestic rates announced at the St Andrew's summit will be given effect by introducing a maximum rateable (capital) value. In the first year it will be treated as a loss of revenue and in subsequent years the cost will be redistributed amongst other ratepayers, because the additional value will be disregarded.

Local Government Finance

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the Government plans to continue to increase the council and the regional rate of domestic rates by six per cent. prior to the restoration of devolved Government in future financial years after 2007-08.

David Hanson: The Government are working to restore devolved Government to Northern Ireland by the end of March 2007. Regardless of whether devolution occurs, increases in the regional rate in future years will be a matter for the normal budget process, which has always been the case. In addition individual councils will strike district rates according to their own budget processes.

Ministerial Travel

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the occasions since he has held his present office when he has used  (a) rail services,  (b) the London Underground,  (c) tram or light railway services and  (d) buses in connection with his ministerial duties.

Peter Hain: All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House. Security considerations are an important factor.
	Since being appointed to the posts of Secretary of State for Wales and for Northern Ireland in May 2005, I have travelled on 12 occasions by train in connection with my role as Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland.
	I have not used the London Underground, tram, light railway or buses in the course of these ministerial duties.

Parking Fines

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much and what percentage of total unpaid parking fines in Northern Ireland attributable to foreign registered vehicles relate to vehicles registered in the Republic of Ireland.

Paul Goggins: The Police Service Northern Ireland advised that not keep records on foreign registered vehicles and it does therefore unable to provide the percentage of the total unpaid parking fines attributable to foreign registered vehicles, including vehicles registered in the Republic of Ireland.

Parking Fines

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much was owed by owners of foreign-registered vehicles in unpaid parking fines in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.

Paul Goggins: The PSNI have advised that they do not keep records on all foreign registered vehicles and are therefore unable to provide the answer to this question.

Parliamentary Questions

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether his Department uses an internal traffic light or colour-coded system in relation to written parliamentary questions; and whether his Department grades or classifies written parliamentary questions according to their  (a) political sensitivity or  (b) potential for embarrassment.

Peter Hain: No.

Police Training College

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will give consideration to Ballykelly army base's topography and proximity to Eglinton Airport in determining a suitable location for the proposed Police Training College in Northern Ireland.

Paul Goggins: The Government's overriding priority is to make sure that we have a new, high quality police college. Ministers have been exploring all avenues, including the Ballykelly army base, to ensure that the project provides value for money. The Cookstown site, which was identified following an extensive exercise, remains the preferred site for the new college.

Rates Revaluation

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the Valuation and Lands Agency expects to commence work on the next domestic rates revaluation in Northern Ireland.

David Hanson: Any future revaluation is entirely a devolved matter and the timing of any such revaluation will be something for the restored Northern Ireland Assembly to decide.
	When the date is set for the next domestic rates revaluation the Valuation and Lands Agency will need to start its work about 2frac12; years prior to the effective date of the revaluation. Currently the next revaluation is scheduled for 2012.

Rates Revaluation

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many, and what proportion of, households will experience seeing  (a) an increase by one per cent. or more,  (b) a decrease by one per cent. or more and  (c) no change, before the application of transitional relief, as a result of the rates revaluation in (i) Northern Ireland as a whole and (ii) each district area.

David Hanson: The following table sets out the number and proportion experiencing an increase of 1 per cent. or more, a decrease of 1 per cent or more and no change, for each council area and for Northern Ireland as a whole.
	
		
			  Council area  Increase by 1 per cent. or more (Number)  Increase by  1 per cent. or more (%.)  Decrease by  1 per cent. or more (Number)  Decrease by  1 per cent. or more (%)  No change (Number)  No change (%) 
			 Antrim 6,768 35.95 12,050 64 8 0.05 
			 Ards 16,215 51 15,514 48.9 21 0.06 
			 Armagh 8,634 39.5 13,035 59.6 193 0.1 
			 Ballymena 8,630 35.2 15,865 64.7 9 0.03 
			 Ballymoney 3,509 31.8 7,509 68 16 0.14 
			 Banbridge 5,377 30.6 12,204 69.4 2 0.01 
			 Belfast 68,353 55 55,834 44.9 96 0.1 
			 Carrickfergus 3,404 20.6 13,116 79.4 7 0.04 
			 Castlereagh 18,635 65 9,980 34.8 25 0.09 
			 Coleraine 10,328 38.8 16,256 61.1 16 0.06 
			 Cookstown 7,474 59.7 5,042 40.3 6 0.05 
			 Craigavon 7,891 22.8 26,720 77.1 25 0.07 
			 Derry 13,602 33.3 27,223 66.7 8 0.02 
			 Down 13,031 49.7 13,157 50.2 6 0.02 
			 Dungannon 11,070 56.6 8,495 43.4 2 0.01 
			 Fermanagh 12,055 49.6 12,230 50.3 14 0.06 
			 Larne 5,093 36.5 8,849 63.4 17 0.12 
			 Limavady 3,316 28.7 8,241 71.3 1 0.01 
			 Lisburn 17,879 41.5 25,176 58.5 9 0.02 
			 Magherafelt 6,319 44.3 7,934 55.6 4 0.03 
			 Moyle 3,582 46.4 4,118 53.4 18 0.2 
			 Newry and Mourne 18,665 54.7 15,446 45.2 25 0.07 
			 Newtownabbey 10,163 29.8 23,916 70.1 7 0.02 
			 North Down 15,071 45.2 18,258 54.7 15 0.04 
			 Omagh 6,781 36.7 11,650 63.2 17 0.09 
			 Strabane 4,432 30.2 10,248 69.8 10 0.07 
			 Northern Ireland 306,277 43.45 398,066 56.47 577 0.08 
			  Note: Some of the percentages may no total 100 per cent. due to rounding

Rates Revaluation

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many neighbourhood geo-codes there are in Northern Ireland for the purposes of the domestic rates revaluation.

David Hanson: There are 915 neighbourhoods recorded in Northern Ireland by the Valuation and Lands Agency for the purposes of the domestic rates revaluation.

Rates Revaluation

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the Northern Ireland domestic rates revaluation is planned to be revenue-neutral once transitional relief is phased out.

David Hanson: The level of resource raised post 2008 will be contingent on the rate set by central and local government. The domestic rates revaluation is revenue neutral in 2007-08. The current reforms will change the distribution of the tax base.

River Bann

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans there are to promote the water-based tourist potential of the River Bann at Coleraine.

Maria Eagle: Waterways Ireland through the implementation of its Marketing and Promotion Strategy actively promotes the Lower Bann navigation and the facilities at or adjacent to it. The strategy, now in its third year of implementation, combines both destination and product-marketing aspects and is delivered through an integrated set of tactics in order that the marketing needs of the different target groups can be satisfied.
	Waterways Ireland also runs a Sponsorship Programme whereby it sponsors local water based events of which three were held on the Lower Bann in 2006.
	The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) has identified Activity Tourism which includes angling and water sports as one of five winning themes in its Strategic Framework for Action. A new activity brochure will be produced in early spring representing a range of outdoor activities throughout Northern Ireland, plus a new website:
	www.outdooractivitiesni.com
	Currently the Lower Bann features on www.discovernnorthernireland.com NITB's consumer website with links to other websites, in particular the Bann System website www.bannsystem.com which provides detailed information on fishing on the river.

Scottish Undergraduates

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of how many school leavers in Scotland have opted to attend university in Northern Ireland.

Maria Eagle: The Department for Employment and Learning does not hold information on Scottish school leavers. Provisional figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show that 13 applicants whose area of permanent residence was recorded as Scotland have been accepted to Northern Ireland Higher Education Institutions in 2006.

Serious Crime Prevention Orders

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to introduce serious crime prevention orders in Northern Ireland.

Paul Goggins: I intend to introduce serious crime prevention orders in Northern Ireland in forthcoming legislation.

Televised Court Proceedings

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions he has had with the Lord Chancellor on televising court proceedings in Northern Ireland.

David Hanson: The Lord Chancellor consulted my right. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and other Cabinet colleagues on the drafting and issue of the consultation paper published in November 2004, as well as seeking views as part of that consultation process.

Tourism

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of Northern Ireland's gross domestic product is made up of income generated by tourism.

Maria Eagle: Research is currently under way to assess the contribution of tourism to the Northern Ireland economy and results are expected by February 2007. Previous research estimated that the income generated by tourism in 1997 was worth 1.8 per cent. of Northern Ireland GDP.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what use the Valuation and Lands Agency makes of the techniques of  (a) variography and  (b) similarity matrices for valuation purposes.

David Hanson: The techniques of variography and similarity formulae are incorporated in the Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) software (Spatialest) used by the Valuation and Lands Agency to produce first pass valuations in connection with the recently published Capital Value Domestic Revaluation. In combination, these techniques determine the selection of sales comparables by determining their proximity and degree of similarity to each property valued in the CAMA process.
	They are integrated within the proprietary software and programmed to operate independently of valuer input. The resulting value estimates are, however, reviewed by Agency valuers.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what use the Valuation and Lands Agency and its contracted partners make of  (a) aerial photography,  (b) oblique aerial photography,  (c) digital mapping,  (d) satellite photography and  (e) pictometry in the Northern Ireland domestic rates revaluation.

David Hanson: Digital Mapping, in the form of Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland's digital mapping database, was used by the Valuation and Lands Agency to assist in the creation of value neighbourhoods and to locate properties for modelling and valuation purposes.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what foreign visits have been undertaken by Valuation and Lands Agency staff on official business in the last 12 months.

David Hanson: Nigel Woods, chief executive, and Alan Bronte, director of, Domestic Rating and Assessment attended the annual conference of the International Association of Assessing Officers in Milwaukee, USA, departing Northern Ireland on 7 October 2006 and returning on 13 October 2006.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will place in the Library a copy of the presentations to the July 2006 Commonwealth Heads of Valuation Agencies Conference made by  (a) the Valuation and Lands Agency's (i) Nigel Woods, (ii) David Rainey and (iii) Alan Bronte,  (b) the Senior Representative of the Northern Ireland Government and  (c) Brian McClure of the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel.

David Hanson: A copy of the requested presentations will be placed in the Library. It should however be noted that Nigel Woods and Bruce Robinson (the Senior Representative of the NI Government) did not give presentations. All presentations made can be accessed on www.chova.org.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will place in the Library a copy of the documentation produced by the Valuation and Lands Agency for the joint project with Belfast city council on the provision of full survey details on all changes to properties.

David Hanson: Arrangements will be made to place a copy of the Service Level Agreement between the Valuation and Lands Agency and the Belfast city council in the Library.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what  (a) geo-spatial and  (b) geo-demographic datasets have been purchased by the Valuation and Lands Agency from external sources in the last five years.

David Hanson: The following geo-spatial datasets were purchased from Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI) within the last five years.
	1:10,000Raster Colour
	1:210,000Raster
	1:50,000Raster Colour
	1:50,000Vector
	1:10,000Raster Monochrome
	1:1250Vector Large Scale
	1:2500Vector Large Scale
	Pointer Plus
	Greater Belfast Street MapRaster
	NI Ortho-photographic
	A geo-demographic dataset was provided by Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
	Northern Ireland Census Output Areas

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether double glazing is a site positive property attribute in the Valuation and Lands Agency's Automated Valuation Model.

David Hanson: Double glazing is not a site positive property attribute nor a value variable in any of the models applied by the Valuation and Lands Agency during the Northern Ireland domestic revaluation.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what databases owned by the Valuation and Lands Agency are managed  (a) internally and  (b) by external consultants.

David Hanson: The agency's core IT system, Assessment Office (AO), was developed by, and is supported and managed by, external consultancy firm LogicaCMG. LogicaCMG also support the agency's statutory Valuation Lists published on the internet.
	Remaining database systems are supported and managed by other external suppliers and agency staff. The details are set out in the table.
	
		
			  Database system  Purpose  Management 
			 Assessment Office Property Valuation and Casework management LogicaCMG 
			 Internet Valuation Lists Statutory Publication of 4th and 5th Valuation Lists LogicaCMG 
			 Capital Value Schedule Publication of Provisional Capital Values LogicaCMG 
			 Sun Financials Agency Finance System Sysco 
			 Rascal Analysis of Property Rents Helm Corporation 
			 CAMA System Estimation of Capital Valuations Internal 
			 Spatial Database Support of valuation models via digital mapping Internal 
			 Avgen Valuation on Asset basis Internal 
			 SDLT and SID Systems Market Transaction Repositories Internal 
			 MOD System Specialist Property Valuation Internal 
			 Income Based Systems Hotel and other income-based valuations Internal 
			 Photoviewer Database Image Repository Internal

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what proportion of domestic properties in Northern Ireland are classified by the Valuation and Lands Agency with property attribute codes of  (a) SG-Wood,  (b) SG-PVC,  (c) SG-Metal,  (d) DG-Wood,  (e) DG-PVC and  (f) DG-Metal.

David Hanson: The data requested are listed as follows:
	
		
			  Window type  Number of properties  Percentage of total 
			  (a) SG-Wood 442 0.0615 
			  (b) SG-PVC 166 0.0231 
			  (c) SG-Metal 42 0.0058 
			  (d) DG-Wood 612 0.0852 
			  (e) DG-PVC 10,614 1.4768 
			  (f) DG-Metal 4 0.0006 
			 Not recorded 706,839 98.3471

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much the Valuation and Lands Agency has spent on its Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal system.

David Hanson: The total cost of the CAMA system is 781,000.

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the co-efficient value of values given to the property attribute for conservation area are in the Valuation and Land Agency's calibrated Multiple Regression formula used in the domestic rates revaluation in Northern Ireland.

David Hanson: In Northern Ireland, conservation areas were considered in each of the 25 market areas defined in the Valuation and Lands Agency's Multiple Regression Analysis. In six of the 25 market areas, they were considered to be significant towards estimating capital value.
	The following table shows co-efficient values of conservation areas in the 25 market areas:
	
		
			  Market area  Co-efficient 
			 Antrim 0 
			 Ards 0 
			 Armagh 0 
			 Ballymena 0.14 
			 Ballymoney 0 
			 Banbridge 0 
			 Castlereagh 0 
			 Coleraine 0 
			 Craigavon 0 
			 Derry 0 
			 Down 0 
			 Dungannon 0.21 
			 East Antrim 0.11 
			 Fermanagh 0 
			 Glens 0 
			 Greater Belfast 0.07 
			 Limavady 0 
			 Lisburn 0.27 
			 Mid Down 0 
			 Mid Ulster 0 
			 Newry 0 
			 North Down 0.24 
			 Omagh 0 
			 South Armagh 0 
			 Strabane 0

Valuation and Lands Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the co-efficient value of values given to each of the property attributes for  (a) window glazing,  (b) gardens,  (c) garage spaces and  (d) off-street parking spaces are in the Valuation and Land Agency's calibrated Multiple Regression formula used in the domestic rates revaluation in Northern Ireland.

David Hanson: In Northern Ireland, window glazing, gardens, garage spaces and off-street parking were not value significant in any of the models used by the Valuation and Lands Agency and hence no co-efficient values were given to them.

TREASURY

Child Care

Sarah Teather: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the employer-supported child care measures first announced in the 2003 pre-Budget report.

Dawn Primarolo: holding answer 28 November 2006
	Since the introduction of the income tax and national insurance contributions exemptions on employer-supported child care in April 2005, employers and employees have not been required to report tax-free employer-supported child care vouchers provided to employees. Therefore information on the marginal tax rate of participants, overall numbers participating, or cost to the exchequer is not available.
	HMRC have recently commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), an independent social research organisation, to monitor the initial impact of reforms to employer-supported child care. They conducted a survey of employer perception of employer-supported child care as a whole, and not just child care vouchers.

Civil Servants

John Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many civil servants have been made redundant since the submission of the Gershon review; and what the total cost was of the redundancies.

Stephen Timms: Departments are responsible for implementing their work force strategies and the information requested is not held centrally. However care is taken to ensure that compulsory redundancy is only used a last resort.
	As a result of the Government's efficiency programme, by the end of September 2006 54,963 posts had been removed, of which 9,412 have been re-allocated to front-line roles resulting in a net work force reduction of 45,551 posts.

Climate Change Levy

Anne Milton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received about the charging of VAT on the Climate Change Levy.

John Healey: Representations are regularly made to Treasury Ministers and officials on a wide range of issues.
	VAT has always been due on the total amount payable for fuel and power for commercial use inclusive of any charges, including the climate change levy.

Correspondence

John Barrett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the parliamentary business unit of the Tax Credit Office will reply to the facsimile of 27 September 2006 from the hon. Member for Edinburgh West in relation to a constituent, Ms Cathie Maison.

Dawn Primarolo: The Tax Credit Office wrote to the hon. Member on 24 November 2006 about his constituent's tax credits claim.

Data Protection

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans the Valuation Office Agency has to review its procedures on the secondary use of personal information held for the collection and administration of council tax.

Dawn Primarolo: None.

Departmental Estate

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which offices  (a) owned and  (b) rented by his Department in Greater London are not currently occupied by departmental staff; and what the (i) annual cost of maintenance, (ii) value, (iii) length of time for which they have been unoccupied and (iv) total area of office space is for each such unoccupied office.

John Healey: The Treasury rents 350 square metres of space in a building in London which is used as an emergency back-up site. The current cost of maintaining this facility amounts to 305,000 which covers rent, business rates, maintenance costs, utilities and communications costs.

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department has spent on external media trainers in each year since 1997, broken down by supplier.

John Healey: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on organising and hosting press conferences in each of the last 24 months.

John Healey: The Treasury's accounting system does not record press conferences as a separate category of expenditure, so the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how much was spent on overseas travel for staff of  (a) his Department and  (b) its agencies other than when accompanying Ministers in each year since 2001-02;
	(2)  how much was spent on travel costs within the UK by staff of  (a) his Department and  (b) its agencies in each year since 2001-02.

John Healey: For total travel costs for the years 2001-02 to 2003-04 inclusive, I refer to the answer given by the then Financial Secretary the right hon. Member for Bolton, West (Ruth Kelly) to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 19 July 2004,  Official Report, column 44W. Further analysis in relation to those years could now be provided only at disproportionate cost. Figures for 2004-05 and 2005-06 are set out in the following table.
	For the former HM Customs and Excise, the Royal Mint and the Office for National Statistics, travel cannot be disaggregated from travel and subsistence.
	
		
			  000 
			  Department/agency  Basis of figures  2004-05  2005-06 
			 HM Treasury UK travel 347 511 
			  Overseas travel 1,416 1,418 
			 Debt Management Office UK travel 12 19 
			  Overseas travel 10 18 
			 Office of Government Commerce UK travel 1,227 1,474 
			  Overseas travel 26 23 
			 OGCbuying.solutions Total travel 837 992 
			 Valuation Office Agency UK travel 3,073 3,475 
			  Overseas travel 4 4 
			 Government Actuary's Department UK travel 31 50 
			  Overseas travel 79 65

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department paid in pension contributions for  (a) his special advisers and  (b) the Council of Economic Advisers in each of the last three years.

John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answers given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 24 July 2006,  Official Report, column 86WS, 21 July 2005,  Official Report, column 161WS and 22 July 2004,  Official Report, column 466W.

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of  (a) bonuses awarded and  (b) overtime payments made to (i) his special advisers and (ii) the Council of Economic Advisers was in each of the last three years.

John Healey: None. Staff employed on special adviser terms are not eligible for overtime or bonus payments.

Departmental Expenditure

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of providing staff subsidies for food in his Department has been in each of the last three years.

John Healey: The costs of food subsidies in each of the last three years is as follows:
	
		
			
			 2003-04 134,000 
			 2004-05 97,000 
			 2005-06 16,000 
		
	
	The subsidies will be phased out by 2007-08.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether people employed  (a) through employment agencies and  (b) on a consultancy basis are included in the calculations for the full-time equivalent staff mentioned in his Department's annual report.

John Healey: Staff employed through employment agencies or on a consultancy basis were not included in the calculations for FTE staff mentioned in the departmental report.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's annual budget is for employing workers on a consultancy basis; and how much of this budget was used in each of the last five years for which records are available.

John Healey: The Treasury's overall budgets for the remaining years of the current spending review period and outturn for past years are shown in the departmental report, available from
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/about/departmental_reports/deptreport_index.cfm.
	The Treasury does not have a fixed, recurrent, annual budget for consultants. Budgets for line items such as consultants are allocated internally on an annual basis, as part of the business planning process, and flexed in year to accommodate changes to priorities and circumstances. The budgets for similar line items, such as consultancy and contracted out services, may be aggregated within the accounting system.
	For the Treasury's actual spend on consultants for the years up to 2004-05, I refer to the answer given to my hon. Friend the member for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Central (Jim Cousins) on 14 March 2006,  Official Report, column 2128W. The Treasury's actual spend on consultants in 2005-06 was 6.10 million. Treasury' spending on consultants includes, since 2002-03, fees to Partnerships UK for their work providing project and policy support to the Treasury and other public bodies on the development, procurement and implementation of public private partnerships.

Departmental Staff

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the pay bands are of the officials who work for his Department's Director of Policy and Planning.

John Healey: As part of their duties, two officials provide support to the Treasury's Director of Policy and Planning. One is in the Treasury's pay range E and one in pay range C.

Departmental Staff

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what away days have been undertaken by his Department's ministerial support team in the last 12 months; and what the  (a) location,  (b) date,  (c) activities undertaken and  (d) cost was of each away day.

John Healey: I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 18 October 2006,  Official Report, columns 1252-53W.

Excess Winter Deaths

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many excess winter deaths there were in each Government office region in each year since 1997.

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
	 Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 29 November 2006:
	As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the number of excess winter deaths was in each Government Office Region in each year since 1997. (103978)
	Estimates for winters from 1991/92 to 2004/05 (with provisional figures for 2005/2006) can be found in the report, Excess Winter MortalityBy Age Group and Region on the National Statistics website at:
	http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=70894More=Y

External Employment Notices

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the notices of external employment given by his  (a) special advisers and  (b) the Council of Economic Advisers in the past 12 months.

John Healey: Dr. Stewart Wood gave notice of external employment in this period, following the guidance set out in the Model Contract and Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, and this was approved by the permanent secretary.
	During the 2006-07 academic year, Dr. Wood will be teaching at Magdalen college, university of Oxford, from where he has been on extended leave while a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. Over this period his Treasury hours and remuneration have been reduced accordingly.

Foreign Aid

Paul Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with his counterparts on the International Monetary Fund's Monetary and Finance Committee on ways in which developing-country Governments can more effectively utilise flows of foreign aid to accelerate their response to AIDS without compromising economic growth; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Balls: The IMF advises developing country Governments about how to ensure public spending financed from foreign aid and other sources is consistent with macroeconomic stability, itself a prerequisite for economic growth. In his Medium Term Strategy the IMF Managing Director, Rodrigo Rato, identified marshalling of the expected rise in aid flows to achieve the MDGs as one of the Fund's key challenges in developing countries. The UK and the IMF jointly hosted a workshop at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in April this year on the management of increased aid flows, including for tackling HIV/AIDS, and the issue was subsequently raised at the IMFC. The conclusion of this and other engagement on the issue has been that countries can, with appropriate economic policies, manage the impact of large aid flows.

Gambling Tax

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax was collected via the gross profits tax on gambling in each of the last five financial years; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: Revenues for gambling taxes are published in the HM Revenue and Customs Betting, Gaming and Lottery Duties Bulletin, available at
	http://www.uktradeinfo.co. uk/index.cfm?task=bullbett.

Gershon Review

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the most recent figures are for the information contained in Table 4.2 of the Gershon review.

Stephen Timms: By the end of September 2006 Departments had reported gross work force reductions of 54,963 posts of which 9,412 were re-allocated to front-line roles resulting in a net work force reduction of 45,551 posts. 10,574 posts had been re-located out of London and the South East.
	Departmental targets for work force reductions and post re-location were set in the 2004 Spending Review and Departments report on progress twice each year in their autumn performance reports and departmental reports.

HM Revenue and Customs

David Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what functions are carried out by the Aylesbury office of HM Customs and Revenue; which functions it is proposed to transfer elsewhere under the regional review programme; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: The main activities carried out in the Aylesbury office are:
	Debt Management and Banking
	Distributed Processing
	Local Compliance.
	We have not made firm decisions on the future of Aylesbury and do not expect to include this office in our review programme until at least April 2008.
	Concerning any possible reorganisation of business activities across HMRC I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) on 27 November 2006,  Official Report, columns 451-52W.

HM Revenue and Customs

David Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what services he expects to be provided to members of the public by HM Revenue and Customs' proposed basic face-to-face presence in individual locations;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the number of staff which will need to be retained at the Aylesbury office of HM Revenue and Customs to ensure an adequate face-to-face service for the public.

Dawn Primarolo: There are no plans to change the face-to-face service provided by HMRC to members of the public.
	The number of full-time equivalent staff needed to provide a face to face service to the public in Aylesbury is currently estimated at four, plus management time.

HM Revenue and Customs

Nick Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether  (a) HM Revenue and Customs,  (b) the UK Debt Management Office and  (c) the Crown Estate recognise the International GCSE as an acceptable substitute for a GCSE for the purposes of recruitment.

John Healey: For HMRC and the UK Debt Management Office, it is an acceptable substitute. The Crown Estate, however, does not use GCSEs generally as a standard for its recruitment purposes, so the question does not apply.

HM Revenue and Customs

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what  (a) salary and  (b) bonuses were paid to the (i) Chairman and (ii) Acting Chairman of HM Revenue and Customs in each year since 1997-98; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: The requested salary and bonus details are set out as follows.
	
		
			   Salary ()  Bonus () 
			  Paul GrayHMRC Acting Chairman   
			 1 November 2006 148,802  
			
			  David VarneyHMRC Chairman   
			 1 April 2006 161,441 15,000 
			 1 April 2005 156,750 16,000 
			 1 September 2004 150,000  
			
			  Ann ChantInland Revenue Acting Chairman   
			 1 April 2004 138,886  
			
			  Nick MontaguInland Revenue Chairman   
			 1 September 2004  6,720 
			 1 April 2003 145,480 4,000 
			 1 April 2002 142,279 7,800 
			 1 April 2001 134,225 6,930 
			 1 April 2000 120,530  
			 1 April 1999 110,468  
			 1 December 1998 105,208  
			 1 April 1998 101,959  
			 8 July 1997 99,500 5,828 
			
			  Mike ElandCustoms and Excise Chairman   
			 1 April 2004 145,721  
			
			  Richard BroadbentCustoms and Excise Chairman   
			 1 April 2003 141,922 11,000 
			 1 April 2002 135,164 7,200 
			 1 April 2001 127,513  
			 1 April 2000 117,856  
			
			  Valerie StrachanCustoms and Excise Chairman   
			 1 April 1999 119,636  
			 1 December 1998 113,939  
			 1 April 1998 109,743  
			 1 December 1997 107,591  
			 1 April 1997 105,522

Home Condition Reports

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations his Department made to the Department for Communities and Local Government prior to the recent decision to make home condition reports voluntary.

Dawn Primarolo: Representation on the home condition report register was made by the Valuation Office Agency on 11 August 2005. The information was provided in confidence, and therefore it is not appropriate to disclose it.

Household Statistics

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many couples were recorded as living apart together in each quarter from the first quarter of 1990 to the third quarter of 2006; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  how many couples were  (a) married,  (b) unmarried but living together and  (c) living apart in each year since 1990; and if he will make a statement.

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 29 November 2006:
	The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking for the number couples recorded as living apart together in each quarter from the first quarter of 1990 to the third quarter of 2006 (102936) and the number of couples who were (a) married, (b) unmarried but living together and (c) living apart in each year since 1990. I am replying in her absence. (102936,102937)
	Information on couples living apart together is not compiled on a routine basis. A first attempt to estimate the numbers living apart together were published in an article in Population Trends 122 (Winter 2005) entitled 'Living Arrangements in contemporary Britain: having a partner who usually lives elsewhere and living apart together'. This is available in the House of Commons library.
	Annual estimates of married and cohabiting couples are available from the Labour Force Survey, which has the largest sample size and provides longest continuous time series. The numbers requested are available from this survey since 1996, when population weights first enabled estimates for the population as a whole to be produced. Prior to this, 1991 Census counts are also available. The available information is provided in the table below.
	
		
			  Numbers of married and cohabiting couples, United Kingdom and England and Wales, 1991 to 2005 
			  Thousands 
			   United Kingdom  England and Wales 
			   (a) married couples  (b) cohabiting couples  (a) married couples  (b) cohabiting couples 
			 1991 12,527 (1)n/a 11,115 1,097 
			 1996 12,633 1,472 11,168 1,362 
			 1997 12,549 1,673 11,106 1,540 
			 1998 12,473 1,750 11,061 1,606 
			 1999 12,421 1,848 11,020 1,694 
			 2000 12,385 1,965 10,980 1,793 
			 2001 12,265 2,086 10,867 1,901 
			 2002 12,225 2,119 10,828 1,927 
			 2003 12,163 2,198 10,792 1,996 
			 2004 12,154 2,229 10,768 2,021 
			 2005 12,122 2,312 10,739 2,091 
			 (1 )Cohabitation data is not available from the 1991 NI Census outputs therefore a UK figure cannot be produced for 1991.  Source: Labour Force Survey, average of spring and autumn quarters, except 1991 where the figures are based on the 1991 Census

Inheritance Tax

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the threshold for inheritance tax was in each of the last 10 financial years.

Dawn Primarolo: The thresholds for inheritance tax in each of the last 10 financial years are given in Table A.8 of HMRC National Statistics, available from the HMRC website at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/inheritance_tax/appendix__a8.pdf.
	At Budget 2006 the Chancellor pre-announced more than expected statutory indexation increases in the threshold for all tax years up to 2009-10, when the threshold will be 325,000.

Landfill Tax

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the proportion of landfill tax revenue that comes from  (a) local authorities and  (b) their agents.

John Healey: Reliable estimates are not available for the proportion of landfill tax revenue from local authorities and their agents. Registered landfill site operators pay the tax to HM Revenue and Customs and information on the source of the waste and the customer is not recorded on the landfill tax return.

Landfill Tax

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of landfill tax was in each year since 1997; what the landfill tax take was in each year; and what estimate he has made of revenue in the next two financial years.

John Healey: Information on revenue and rates for landfill tax can be found in Table 2 and Table 3 of the HM Revenue and Customs 'Landfill Tax Levy Bulletin' on the HM Revenue and Customs website:
	http://www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=landfill
	The revenue projection for 2006-07 can be found in Table C8 of the HM Treasury Financial Statistics and Budget Report published in March 2006. A revised estimate and projection for 2007-08 will be available in the upcoming pre-Budget Report.

Low Value Consignment Relief

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Paymaster General expects to make a decision on whether to alter the operation of low value consignment relief; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: holding answer 28 November 2006
	As set out in para 5.107 of the FSBR, published in March 2006, the Government are keeping the operation of the low value consignment relief under review.

Migration

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes have been made to the Office for National Statistics' estimates of the absolute level of anticipated yearly net inward migration into  (a) England and  (b) the United Kingdom in each year since 1997.

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
	 Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 29 November 2006:
	As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question asking what changes have been made to the Office for National Statistics' estimates of the absolute level of anticipated yearly net inward migration into (a) England and (b) the United Kingdom in each year since 1997. (104310)
	National population projections were formerly the responsibility of the Government Actuary's Department (GAD). In January 2006, this responsibility transferred to the Office for National Statistics. A comprehensive database of past national projections, as well as the current 2004-based set published in October 2005, is provided on the GAD website at:
	http://www.gad.gov.uk/Population/index.asp.
	The migration assumptions requested are available from this database.

Ministerial Travel

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Government Car Service has ordered a Toyota Prius for use by him in the last 12 months.

John Healey: The Government Car and Despatch Agency has not ordered any vehicle in the last 12 months to replace the 2002 Vauxhall Omega which it makes available to the Chancellor. This vehicle is in good condition and it would be inappropriate on cost and environmental grounds for it to be replaced or scrapped now.

Ministerial Visits

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many overseas visits were undertaken by  (a) the Paymaster General,  (b) the Financial Secretary and  (c) the Economic Secretary in each of the last three years; and what the (i) destination, (ii) purpose, (iii) number of officials accompanying the Minister and (iv) total cost was for each visit;
	(2)  what the purpose was of the visit by the Economic Secretary to the United Arab Emirates on 9 November; what meetings he held; how many staff accompanied him; and what the total cost of the visit was.

John Healey: All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House. Since 1999, the Government have published on an annual basis the total cost of overseas travel by all Ministers.

Ministerial Visits

Anne Main: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he last visited a tax credit  (a) contact centre,  (b) office and (c) IT development office.

Dawn Primarolo: I opened the new contact centre for handling tax credits enquiries at Queen's Dock, Liverpool and then visited the Tax Credit Office at Imperial Court on 19 October 2006.

Muslim Council of Britain

Michael Gove: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list meetings between  (a) Ministers and  (b) officials in his Department and representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

John Healey: Treasury Ministers and officials meet a wide range of individuals and organisations in the public and private sectors to discuss a variety of issues as part of the process of policy analysis and development. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's normal practice to provide details of all such meetings.

National Identity Register

Mark Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which datasets held by his Department have been identified as suitable for use in the National Identity Register database.

Stephen Timms: No datasets held by the Chancellor's Departments have been identified as suitable for use in the National Identity Register database. The National Identity Register database will only hold identity-related information. Section 9 of the Identity Cards Act 2006 provides for the Home Secretary to request information from departmental systems for validating the register. Any order under this section must be approved in draft by a resolution of each House.

National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was spent by the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre in the 2005-06 financial year, broken down by main budget heading.

Tony McNulty: I have been asked to reply.
	Overall, NISCC spent 10 million during the financial year 2005-06. Its four main business streams are: threat assessment; outreach; response; and capability development. It is difficult to provide a meaningful further breakdown of costs as all of these work streams are highly interdependent, with activity in one area contributing to outputs in another.

National Insurance

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the merits of refunding those who have made voluntary national insurance contributions and who will have accrued the maximum pension benefit that they can if the White Paper proposals are implemented.

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given by the Economic Secretary to the hon. Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) on 24 October 2006,  Official Report, column 1837W.

Orphan Assets

Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the Government's position is on the distribution of orphan assets in the private sector; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Balls: The Financial Services Authority has introduced rules to ensure policyholders are treated fairly in any reattribution of a life insurance company's inherited estate or orphan assets. This includes requiring the appointment of an independent policyholder advocate to represent policyholders' interests.

Parliamentary Questions

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library copies of HM Treasury internal guidance documents on  (a) answering parliamentary questions for written answer and  (b) responses to Freedom of Information requests.

John Healey: The documents concerned have been placed in the Library. Both sets of guidance are in the process of being updated, in the case of parliamentary questions to take account of recent changes in parliamentary procedure and in respect of freedom of information to reflect the Treasury's experience since January 2005 in implementing the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Parliamentary Questions

Mark Francois: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department uses an internal traffic light or colour-coded system in relation to written parliamentary questions; and whether his Department operates any system of classification of written parliamentary questions according to  (a) political sensitivity,  (b) media interest and  (c) other factors.

David Laws: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department has a traffic light system in place for processing parliamentary questions, where questions are categorised using a colour code.

John Healey: The Treasury has neither a traffic light nor a colour-coded system for classifying parliamentary questions and it has never categorised questions according to their political sensitivity, media interest or other factors.

Parliamentary Questions

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many written parliamentary questions his Department received in each parliamentary Session since 2001; how many were not answered because of disproportionate costs; how many answers referred back to a previous answer  (a) asked by the same hon. Member and  (b) asked by another hon. Member; and how many were not substantively answered in each session.

John Healey: The number of written questions received in each of the last six parliamentary Sessions and the number of questions not answered substantively at prorogation are given in the table:
	
		
			  Session  Written questions  Not answered substantively 
			 2000-01 1,297  
			 2001-02 5,888 6 
			 2002-03 3,675 1 
			 2003-04 3,099  
			 2004-05 1,147  
			 2005-06 6,437 13 
		
	
	Information is not available relating to questions which could not be answered wholly or in part on disproportionate cost grounds and to referrals back to previous answers.

Parliamentary Questions

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many written parliamentary questions to his Department were grouped together for answer in each parliamentary Session since 2001;
	(2)  how many written parliamentary questions each Minister in his Department has answered in each parliamentary Session since 2001; and how many were answered  (a) within seven days,  (b) within 14 days,  (c) within 28 days and  (d) after 28 days, broken down by Minister.

John Healey: The information requested relating to answers which were grouped and to answers given by particular Ministers is a matter of public record. The analyses sought of time-lags between the tabling and answering of questions could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Pensions

John Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of national insurance contributions in respect of state second pension accruals, based upon the Pensions White Paper proposals, for each year between 2006 and 2052.

Dawn Primarolo: Class 1 national insurance contributions build up entitlement to both the basic pension and the state second pension. Contributions are not levied separately in respect of the latter.

Premium Bonds

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many premium bonds were  (a) bought,  (b) held and  (c) cashed in in each year since 1997.

Edward Balls: The number of premium bonds which were bought, held, and cashed in in each year since 1997 is shown in the following table:
	
		
			   Sales  Repayments  Stock held 
			 1997 3,013.2 1,122.7 9,645.4 
			 1998 3,487.3 1,350.4 11,782.3 
			 1999 3,618.4 1,683.0 13,717.7 
			 2000 3,158.3 2,009.4 15,115.0 
			 2001 3,804.0 1,881.0 17,095.0 
			 2002 4,032.0 2,353.0 18,935.0 
			 2003 7,725.0 2,576.0 23,705.0 
			 2004 5,656.0 3,554.0 25,993.0 
			 2005 7,059.0 3,218.0 29,964.0 
			 2006 (January to October, provisional) 7,609.0 3,334.0 34,421.0

Public/Private Forum on Identity Management

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many full-time equivalent employees are working for the Public/Private Forum on Identity Management; and how many of them have been seconded from his Department.

Stephen Timms: The Public/Private Forum is supported by three full-time equivalents. Of these, one is from HM Treasury. The other two staff work on behalf of the Identity and Passport Service of the Home Office.

HM Revenue and Customs

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many open cases were outstanding in HM Revenue and Customs in each of the last four quarters.

Dawn Primarolo: The number of PAYE open cases outstanding in the last four quarters are shown in the chart as follows:
	
		
			   PAYE open cases 
			 Quarter ended 31 December 2005 22,607,795 
			 Quarter ended 31 March 2006 12,239,612 
			 Quarter ended 30 June 2006 33,298,765 
			 Quarter ended 30 September 2006 23,986,584

Stolen Departmental Property

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is  (a) the number and  (b) the value of all HM Treasury computers stolen in the last nine years.

John Healey: Computers recorded by the Treasury as lost or stolen are listed in the table.
	
		
			   Number of computers stolen  Approximate replacement cost () 
			 1997 5 10,206 
			 1990 1 2,264 
			 1999 3 5,996 
			 2000 1 2,233 
			 2001 2 3,360 
			 2002 24 45,384 
			 2003 10 11,935 
			 2004 4 4,564 
			 2005 3 2,817 
			 2006 (to date) None

Stolen Departmental Property

Mark Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what items worth more than 100 have been stolen from his Department in each of the last nine years.

John Healey: Three laptop computers and associated IT equipment were stolen in 2005. Two items of IT equipment have been stolen in 2006.
	For earlier years, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer the former Financial Secretary Mr Stephen Timms (East Ham) gave to the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne), 27 January 2005,  Official Report, column 443W.

Tax Credits

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the value was of the three largest frauds perpetrated in the tax credits system since 2003; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the information published in HM Revenue and Customs 2005-06 Accounts: The Comptroller and Auditor General's Standard Report, Part 2, available at
	http://www.nao.org.uk/pn/05-06/05061159.htm

Tax Credits

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  when Ministers were first informed of the easement of tax credit verification rule 12; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  who the most senior official was within HM Revenue and Customs who approved the easement of tax credit verification rule 12 in April 2003; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 18 July 2006,  Official Report, column 363W.

Terrorism

Michael Gove: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received on the involvement of the charity Interpal in the financing of terrorism and related activities; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Balls: The Chancellor of the Exchequer and I regularly discuss terrorist finance issues with international partners and other relevant parties. However, we do not comment on any particular cases that may be raised in those discussions.

Terrorism

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the seized assets of individuals and organisations suspected of having links with al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been disposed of.

Edward Balls: The al-Qaeda and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 freezes the assets of persons listed by the UN Sanctions Committee under UN Security Council resolution 1390 as members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, or associated with them, or persons subject to a direction by the Treasury. However, the assets remain the property of those persons and therefore the assets cannot be disposed of.

The Olympics

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what role his Department played in agreeing the financial component of the Olympic bid document; which  (a) Ministers and  (b) officials were involved in the discussions, and when; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Timms: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Hugh Robertson) on 28 November 2006, question 104521.

The Olympics

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the VAT receipts from the delivery of the Olympic games; what plans there are for the use of these receipts; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given by the former Financial Secretary to the hon. Member for Wealden on 30 January 2004,  Official Report, column 570W.

The Olympics

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consideration was given to the VAT implications when planning the structure of the Olympic Delivery Authority; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: The Olympic Delivery Authority was established as a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006. The VAT treatment of public bodies is set out in the VAT Act 1994.

Tobacco

David Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of taxation in curbing the use of tobacco products.

John Healey: Successive UK Governments have pursued a policy of establishing and maintaining high levels of tax on cigarettes, which has been proven to reduce smoking prevalence.
	The proportion of adults who smoke has been decreased from 28 per cent. in 1998 to 25 per cent. in 2004. The Government's current target is to reduce smoking prevalence to 21 per cent. by 2010.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library a copy of the Valuation Office Agency's council tax application manual.

Dawn Primarolo: The Valuation Office Agency does not have any guidance document entitled council tax application manual.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the job title is of each member of the Valuation Office Agency.

Dawn Primarolo: Staff in the Valuation Office Agency are primarily identified by pay band. There is no central record of all job titles used and this information cannot be supplied without disproportionate cost. The titles for all senior management roles are contained ion the Agency's annual report. The primary network role titles are 'caseworker', 'referencer' and 'manager'.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Valuation Office Agency has spent on its computer-assisted mass appraisal system.

Dawn Primarolo: The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) does not have a full computer-assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) system, but has developed an automated valuation model (AVM). I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 14 July 2006,  Official Report, column 2119W.

VAT (Conservation Work)

Iain Wright: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will reduce the rate of VAT paid in respect of building improvements for properties in conservation areas.

Dawn Primarolo: VAT is not chargeable on the construction of new dwellings and certain charitable buildings, or on any approved alterations to certain protected buildings.
	Under European VAT agreements a reduced rate of VAT of not less than 5 per cent. is available for the construction, renovation and alteration of housing provided as part of a social policy. However, there is no provision in these agreements that would allow a reduced VAT rate for construction or improvement work to any non-residential building.
	To date, where these are available under EU VAT agreements, the Government have been sparing in its use of reduced rates, and only applied them where they offer the best targeted, most efficient support for our social objectives compared with other options. Therefore, we have so far introduced reduced rates for building work in areas that would have the greatest effect on the regeneration and renewal of the UK housing stock, such as certain residential conversions and the renovation of housing that has been empty for more than three years.
	The Government keep the impact of VAT on different types of building work under review and any changes are considered by the Chancellor as part of the Budget process. In making these decisions the economic and social impact is taken into account.

VAT Fraud

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates his Department has made of the level of missing trader intra-community-MTIC-VAT fraud originating via the Dubai Connection for each year since 1999-2000; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: HM Revenue and Customs does not break down estimates of MTIC fraud on a country specific basis.

VAT Fraud

Vincent Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what basis the decision was made, upon creation of HM Revenue and Customs, to discontinue the publication of statistics concerning VAT missing trader intra-community fraud, formerly published in HM Customs and Excise Annual Reports; and if he will make a statement.

Dawn Primarolo: The annual report 2004-05 published on 19 December 2005 was the first for the newly created HM Revenue and Customs and therefore does not seek to replicate the reports of the two former Departments. Instead it brings together in one document information about the new Department's activities. Information about VAT missing trader intra-community fraud is provided on pages 54 and 55 of the published report.

Working Tax Credit

Peter Soulsby: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families are in receipt of working families tax credit in the Eyres Monsell ward of Leicester.

Helen Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in each ward in Warrington, North are in receipt of working tax credit; and what the average award is.

Dawn Primarolo: Reliable estimates of the number of families receiving Child and Working Tax Credits are not available at ward level. However, estimates of the number of recipient in-work families in each constituency and local authority at various dates are published on the HMRC website at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-geog-stats.htm

Working Pensioners

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pensioners over the age of  (a) 65 years,  (b) 70 years and  (c) 75 years are in paid employment.

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
	 Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 29 November 2006
	As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many pensioners over the age of (a) 65 years, (b) 70 years and (c) 75 years are in paid employment. (103401)
	The attached table gives estimates for those in older age groups by gender who are in employment, for the three months ending September 2006.
	Estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
	
		
			  People aged 60 years and over in employment by age and gender, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjustedthree months ending September 2006 
			  Thousand 
			  Age  All persons  Male  Female 
			 60 and over(1, 2) 2,057 1,274 783 
			 65 and over 635 393 241 
			 70 and over 207 130 77 
			 75 and over 70 45 25 
			 (1) Includes men under pensionable age. (2) The 60 and over age group have been included as the state pension age for women is 60.  Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)

WALES

Cross-border NHS Patient Flows

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he last met the Welsh Assembly Minister for Health to discuss cross-border NHS patient flows.

Nick Ainger: I regularly meet the Assembly Minister for Health and Social Services when we discuss a range of issues including cross-border NHS patient flows.

Cross-border NHS Patient Flows

Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with the First Minister on cross-border hospital patient admissions.

Nick Ainger: I regularly meet the Assembly Minister for Health and Social Services on a range of matters, including those on cross-border hospital patient admissions.

Crime

Albert Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on crime figures in Wales.

Peter Hain: I am pleased that during 2005-06 total recorded crime in Wales fell, and detection rates increased.

Gender Equality

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department is taking steps to meet the requirements of the forthcoming duty on public bodies  (a) to end unlawful discrimination and harassment and  (b) to promote equality between women and men.

Peter Hain: The Wales Office operates under the Department of Constitutional Affairs' policies on equal opportunities, including anti-discrimination and harassment.
	The Wales Office is not responsible for enforcing this duty on public bodies.

International Discussions

Hywel Francis: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales 
	(1)  if he will initiate discussions with the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China on strengthening the commercial, cultural and educational links between Wales and China; and if he will make a statement; [R]
	(2)  if he will initiate discussions with the South African High Commissioner on strengthening the commercial, cultural and educational links between Wales and South Africa; and if he will make a statement;
	(3)  if he will initiate discussions with the Indian High Commissioner on strengthening the commercial, cultural and educational links between Wales and India; and if he will make a statement.

Peter Hain: I will continue to work in partnership with the National Assembly for Wales to promote Wales on the international stage. In recent years I have visited both India and China, and I am in close contact with the South African High Commissioner.

Single Farm Payments

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales 
	(1)  what representations he has made to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential effects of the reduction in single farm payments in Wales;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the effect of a reduction in single farm payments on the incomes of farmers in Wales;
	(3)  what estimates he has made of the implications for farm incomes in Wales of a reduction in single farm payments.

Peter Hain: None. The Welsh Assembly Government are fully engaged with DEFRA in shaping the UK's negotiating position in relation to the European Commission's legislative proposals for the operation of voluntary modulation, a key mechanism for delivering agri-environment schemes under the Rural Development Plan.

South Wales Economy

John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with Assembly Members and UK Ministers on the performance of the south Wales economy.

Nick Ainger: I have regular discussions with Welsh Assembly Government colleagues and UK Ministers on a range of issues including the performance of the south Wales economy.
	There is good news in south Wales. Claimant count in the Vale of Glamorgan is down 47 per cent. since 1997, and has fallen by the same percentage across south Wales as a whole. Furthermore, employment is at a record high, with 1.345 million people in work as a result of Government and Assembly Government policies.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Burma

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the likelihood of  (a) China,  (b) Russia and  (c) Ukraine selling weapons to the Burmese regime.

Ian McCartney: We are aware of reports that the Government of Burma has purchased military equipment from a variety of countries including China, Russia and Ukraine. We have not been able to verify all these reports, but Burmese airforce planes of Russian origin are frequently seen at Rangoon airport.
	Burma is subject to an EU arms embargo and we would encourage all international partners not to sell arms to Burma and to observe responsible arms trade policies to any other country whose activities may be a cause for concern.

Casinos

Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what meetings  (a) Ministers and  (b) officials in her Department have held in the last five years with casino operators interested in securing licences under the Gambling Act 2005; which casino operators they met; and if she will place in the Library the agenda and minutes of the meetings and details of who attended each.

Ian McCartney: Due to the disproportionate cost of obtaining this information over a five-year period, we are not in a position to provide the details requested.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of  (a) the Republic of Korea's decision not to intercept vessels en route to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in pursuance of United Nations Security Resolution 1718 and  (b) the impact of that decision on (i) the development of atomic weapons in the DPRK, (ii) the Proliferation Security Initiative, (iii) relations between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK and (iv) the Six Party Talks.

Ian McCartney: The Republic of Korea (RoK) has said it is committed to faithfully implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1718. The Agreement on Maritime Transportation signed between the RoK and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which entered into force on 1 August 2005, allows for interception of vessels travelling to and from the DPRK, under certain circumstances. The RoK government has expressed its support for the purpose and principles of the Proliferation and Security Initiative.
	We welcome the announcement by the Six Party Talks participants that a new round of discussions will commence before the end of the year.

Democratic Republic of Congo

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the arrests of Madame Marie-Thrse Nlandu and other opposition politicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: We are concerned by the continued detention of Marie Thrse Nlandu, since her arrest on charges of illegal possession of weapons on 21 November. Our ambassador in Kinshasa has spoken to the Interior Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo and senior advisers to President Kabila, and outlined our concerns over allegations that Mme Nlandu's human rights, particularly her access to legal representation, have not been fully respected. Other EU missions have done likewise. We continue to press the Congolese government to ensure that due legal process is adhered to in this case and continue to remind the government-elect of the need to ensure space for political opposition.

Departmental Contracts

Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much her Department paid to DHL in each financial year between 1997-98 and 2005-06.

Geoff Hoon: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) contract with DHL Global Logistics started in October 2005. From 1 October 2005 to 31 March 2006 the FCO paid 1,911,748 for the cost of shipping diplomatic bags to posts overseas, and the clearance of incoming bags from posts. This figure also includes DHL Express costs for delivery of urgent items in the UK and overseas.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff were employed on a consultancy basis in  (a) her Department and  (b) each of its agencies in each of the last five years for which information is available; and what the (i) average and (ii) longest period was for which a consultant was employed in each year.

Geoff Hoon: The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) operates a devolved budgeting system for the contracting of staff on a consultancy basis and no central records of numbers employed or length of employment are maintained. We have in excess of 200 overseas posts and a large number of directorates who may have contracted consultants at some time or another in the last five years. Each post and directorate would need to be contacted to provide details of the firms used and the number of consultants provided. This would require significant resource, far in excess of the current threshold for disproportionate cost. In addition, consultants are mainly employed through companies who have been contracted to deliver a specified output for a fixed price. In those instances we would not keep records of the numbers of staff employed on the project by the consultant.
	The FCO's use of external consultants helps to contribute to the success of projects by providing relevant new knowledge, specialist skills, experience and an independent view of key issues not available in-house. This wider experience and broader perspective, drawn from their work with other organisations, adds value to the FCO's business.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what her Department's annual budget is for employing workers on a consultancy basis; and how much of this budget was used in each of the last five years for which records are available.

Geoff Hoon: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not formally set budgets for consultants. In general, budgets are set for an individual project. It is for the project manager to decide on what expertise is required. In addition, budgets for these individual projects are devolved to over 200 overseas posts and a large number of directorates and departments in the UK.
	Most staff employed on a consultancy basis are employed to supply professional expertise on estates issues and information technology. The FCO's use of external consultants helps to contribute to the success of projects by providing relevant new knowledge, specialist skills, experience and an independent view of key issues not available in-house. This wider experience and broader perspective, drawn from their work with other organisations, can add value to what the FCO does.
	FCO expenditure on external consultants in general is reported annually in its departmental report, copies of which are available in the Library of the House and on the FCO's website at www.fco.gov.uk Overall expenditure on external consultants since 2000 is as follows:
	
		
			million 
			 2000-01 17.9 
			 2001-02 20.1 
			 2002-03 23.7 
			 2003-04 23.2 
			 2004-05 24.1 
		
	
	Expenditure for 2005-06 will be collated and published in the FCO's departmental report in April 2007.

Honours

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which individuals who are not UK citizens were awarded honours between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2000; and what the  (a) date of announcement,  (b) honour concerned and  (c) reason for the award was in each case.

Margaret Beckett: The information requested is not readily available. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as the information has been obtained.

Horn of Africa

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of  (a) the situation in Ethiopia and  (b) the risk of a conflict with Somalia.

Ian McCartney: I am concerned at rising tension in the Horn of Africa. The unresolved border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea continues to foster hostility. There is a risk of confrontation between Ethiopia and the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia, which would have serious implications for the region.
	The UK's position remains clear. There should be no return to conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Boundary Commission's decision remains final and binding. We urge both parties to work with the Boundary Commission to agree demarcation of the border. We urge all states in the region to respect the UN arms embargo on Somalia and do nothing which would provoke violence there. We continue to work with our international partners to find peaceful solutions to the conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

Kosovo

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations she has made to the Serbian Government on Kosovo.

Geoff Hoon: In support of the Status Process led by United Nations Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, the UK makes regular representations to the Serbian Government on Kosovo.

Kosovo

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will make a statement on the status of Kosovo.

Geoff Hoon: The UK remains committed to stability in the Balkans. A stable, democratic and multi-ethnic Kosovo in which the rights of all ethnic groups are respected is a key part of that goal.
	The Government fully support the UN Special Envoy for the Final Status Process, Martti Ahtisaari, as he works towards a final status settlement for Kosovo.

Middle East

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will make representations to the governments of Lebanon and Syria requesting they guarantee that the independent investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri is completed.

Kim Howells: Investigation into the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, by the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) continues. The Commissioner, Serge Brammertz, is due to issue his next report around 1 December.
	The UN Security Council has requested the UN Secretary-General to conclude an agreement with the government of Lebanon on the statutes for establishing a tribunal to try those suspected of involvement in the crime. On 25 November the Lebanese Cabinet approved the statutes. According to the Lebanese constitution, the statutes must now be ratified by Parliament. The statutes have now been passed to the President as the first stage in that process. The government of Lebanon has the UK's full support in taking this forward as part of their efforts to find justice for the killers of Rafik Hariri. Both the UK and the UN have made repeated calls on Syria to co-operate with the UNIIIC.

Minister for Europe

Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what areas of responsibility the Minister for Europe speaks for the Government in the House.

Margaret Beckett: holding answer 23 November 2006
	I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Mid-Norfolk (Mr. Simpson) on 6 November,  Official Report, column 847W.

Nigeria

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will make a statement on the current situation in Plateau State, Nigeria, with particular reference to the position of the State Governor.

Ian McCartney: Joshua Dariye, Governor of Plateau State, was impeached by the Plateau State Assembly on 13 November, based on a report submitted by a panel set up by the State's Acting Chief Judge to investigate allegations of corruption against the Governor. Joshua Dariye's whereabouts is currently unknown. Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has issued a warrant for his arrest. He has been replaced by his Deputy, Chief Michael Botmang.

Serbia

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she has had with her European counterparts on the Italian proposal for talks with Serbia on an EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement to be restarted.

Margaret Beckett: Foreign Ministers discussed Serbia at the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) meetings on 16-17 October and 13-14 November in Brussels. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Europe, (Mr. Hoon), and I have also discussed Serbia in bilateral meetings with European counterparts.
	The EU's position, shared by the UK, remains as set out by the October GAERC, at which the Council expressed its
	readiness to continue enhanced political dialogue with Serbia in order to support its European course, including the resumption of the negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement as soon as full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is achieved.

Serbia

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the Government's policy is on the Italian proposal for talks with Serbia on a EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement to be restarted.

Margaret Beckett: I refer the right hon. Member to the reply I gave him today (UIN 103475).

Serbia/Kosovo

William Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what her assessment is of the political and security situation in  (a) Serbia and  (b) Kosovo; and if she will make a statement .

Margaret Beckett: Our assessment is that the security situation in Serbia and Kosovo remains stable. Security in Kosovo is kept under constant review by NATO and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and will remain so throughout the final status process.

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what her most recent assessment is of the situation in Darfur; and what discussions she has had with UN Representative Jan Egeland on his recent visit.

Ian McCartney: We remain appalled at the situation in Darfur. The conditions described by UN Under Secretary-General Jan Egeland in his report to the UN Security Council on 22 November must not be allowed to continue. As agreed at the high-level meeting in Addis Ababa on 16 November, there needs to be an immediate ceasefire; a resumption of the political process; and the deployment of a hybrid UN-AU force in Darfur. My right. hon. Friend the Prime Minister telephoned President Bashir on 22 November to make these points.
	My right. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development telephoned Mr Egeland on 22 November, to discuss the latter's visit to Darfur and to brief on our efforts to ensure government of Sudan agreement to the Addis Ababa package.

Sudan

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will investigate the end-use of portable helipads supplied by Vaughans of Leicester to the government of Sudan.

Kim Howells: The UK adheres rigorously to the UN and EU Arms Embargoes on the Sudan. We are aware of reports of UK-supplied helipads being used in the country and are looking into the details of this export. It would be inappropriate to comment further until we have the full details.
	Officials will write to my hon. Friend when we are in receipt of the information.

Sudan

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when she expects the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force to enter Darfur; what she expects the size of the force to be; what discussions she has held with the British embassy in Khartoum regarding the requirements of such a force; what discussions she has held regarding the selection of a commander for the force; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: A joint African Union (AU)/UN high level meeting in Addis Ababa on 16 November agreed in principle to a joint UN-AU peacekeeping force as the third phase of a UN support plan for the existing force. The timing of its deployment has not been finalised. It will build on two phases of increasing support that will enhance command and control and infrastructure in advance of troop expansion.
	We support the UN proposal for a force of 17,300 troops and 3,000 police, and for a Special Representative to the Secretary-General to be appointed by both the AU and UN. We are pressing the Government of Sudan to accept this.
	The AU and UN will determine the requirements for the future of the peacekeeping force in Darfur. Our embassies in Khartoum, Addis Ababa and other key countries, as well as our Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, are in constant contact on this subject with UN and AU member states.

Uganda

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will request a special session at the Commonwealth meeting to discuss the human rights situation in Uganda; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: The Government keeps the human rights situation in Uganda, and in all countries, under constant review, and will judge the merit of pursuing such issues in various for a on a case-by-case basis. We continue to emphasise the importance of upholding human rights, respecting democratic principles and promoting the rule of law in our discussions with the Ugandan government.

Uganda

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the 6 April 2006 Supreme Court judgment on Dr. Kizza Besigye's election petition; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: On 6 April, the Ugandan Supreme Court's judgment highlighted many of the concerns raised by independent election monitors. But in a majority verdict they also concluded these problems did not substantially affect the election result. The detailed opinions underlying their judgment have not been released.
	In July 2006, the EU election observer mission released its final report on the February 2006 elections. The report concluded that the elections fell short of full compliance with international principles for genuine democratic elections. However, the report also said that despite some shortcomings on election day, voting was generally well administered, transparent and competitive.

Uganda

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the report by HE Sir Ketumile Masire, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, on Uganda; and if she will make a statement.

Ian McCartney: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the then Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs (Ian Pearson) on 18 April 2006,  Official Report, column 91W.
	Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers and officials continue to stress the importance of maintaining a pluralist democracy and developing civil society in their contacts with Ugandan Ministers and officials, including in a meeting with President Museveni on 20 November.

Uganda

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will meet Dr. Kizza Besigye while she is in Uganda.

Ian McCartney: My right. hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary looks forward to visiting Uganda in November 2007. Her programme has yet to be decided.
	Senior officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office met with Dr. Besigye on 5 October during his recent visit to the UK.

Whales

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations she has made to Iceland on the commercial hunting of whales.

Geoff Hoon: The Government have led international condemnation of Iceland's decision to resume commercial whaling. On 1 November, our ambassador in Reykjavik led a multinational demarche of 25 countries plus the European Commission, on the Icelandic government, making clear the extreme disappointment felt by those parties at Iceland's decision, and urging Iceland to abandon its current operations. In addition, my hon. Friend the Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare (Mr. Bradshaw) summoned the Icelandic ambassador on 17 October to protest in the strongest possible terms against Iceland's activities.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

2012 Olympics

Jacqui Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the impact on levels of London council tax of the 40 per cent. increase in costs since 2005 of the estimated costs of the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the community charge premium paid by London residents towards the cost of the 2012 Olympic Games will increase in absolute terms if the projected cost of the games increases in line with current estimates.

Tessa Jowell: The 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor of London provides for cost overruns to be met in a sharing arrangement to be agreed as appropriate between them. The memorandum makes no presumptions about the use of council tax, which is the responsibility of the Mayor of London. We are currently exploring a range of options and will report to Parliament when a resolution has been reached.

2012 Olympics

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much of the additional funding for the Olympic Games will be met by  (a) national taxation,  (b) London council tax payers,  (c) the National Lottery and  (d) reallocation of expenditure within her Department.

Tessa Jowell: Discussions to determine how additional costs are to be funded are ongoing. However, the 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor of London provides for cost overruns to be met in a sharing arrangement to be agreed as appropriate between them. The memorandum makes no presumptions about the use of council tax, which is the responsibility of the Mayor of London. I will report to Parliament when a resolution has been agreed.

2012 Olympics

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the community charge premium paid by London residents towards the cost of the 2012 Olympic games will be reflected in  (a) preferential access and  (b) discounted ticket sales.

Tessa Jowell: The ticketing policy for the London 2012 Olympic games and Paralympic games will be developed over the coming years. The policy will take into account the objective that tickets should be accessible and affordable.

2012 Olympics

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent meetings  (a) she and  (b) ministerial colleagues have had with organisations responsible for the 2012 Olympics.

Tessa Jowell: My Ministerial colleagues and I meet 2012 Olympic games and Paralympic games stakeholders on a regular basis, including at monthly meetings of the Olympic Board which I co-chair.

2012 Olympics

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what costs associated with the policing of the 2012 Olympics fall within the budget of the games.

Tessa Jowell: The budgets of the Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic games contain allowances for security, principally associated with site security. These costs are being reviewed, in parallel with the ongoing review of wider costs for security associated with the London 2012 games.

2012 Olympics

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the total cost of holding the Olympics in 2012.

Tessa Jowell: Costs of staging the Olympic games and Paralympic games are estimated at 2 billion. These costs will be incurred by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic games. The estimated cost of building the Olympic park is 3.3 billion. This does not include associated infrastructure costs as part of the regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley. Other costs associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games including, security, contingency and Olympic infrastructure are still under review. I will report these to Parliament when they have been agreed.

2012 Olympics

Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will provide a breakdown by main budget heading of the funding announced for the Olympic Delivery Partner.

Tessa Jowell: holding answer 28 November 2006
	Within the costs outlined at the Select Committee hearing on 21 November are not only the costs of the delivery partner but also the costs of site mobilisation, i.e. the costs of getting the team on site, including site accommodation, and the costs of new teams required by the ODA itself. The use of a delivery partner will help to ensure the highest levels of programme management and cost control.

2012 Olympics

Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to ensure that the 2012 Olympics benefit as many parts of the UK as possible in terms of  (a) increased take-up of sport,  (b) improved transport facilities and  (c) increased tourism.

Tessa Jowell: holding answer 28 November 2006
	The Government are committed to ensuring that the whole of the UK benefits from the London 2012 Games. We are working closely with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games which chairs a group of representatives from every Nation and region. Each Nation and region is developing plans to maximise the impact of the Games in their area. Specifically:
	 (a) Increasing UK participation in community sport is a key objective of the 2012 Games Programme. A Delivery Plan has been produced in conjunction with key stakeholders to ensure that this objective is reached.
	 (b) The Olympic Transport Plan, launched for consultation by the Olympic Delivery Authority on 30 October 2006, sets out plans for transport provision at the 2012 Games.
	 (c) DCMS will publish a comprehensive tourism strategy in spring 2007 with the aim of increasing visitor numbers and a return from hosting the Games of 1.4billio to 2 billion. The first stage of this strategythe widest ever consultation of the tourism sector, conducted in partnership with VisitBritain and Visit Londonhas now been completed.
	Olympic events will take place across the UK, as the Candidature File makes clear.

Departmental Expenditure

Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much was spent by her Department on television advertisements in the last year for which figures are available.

David Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has never spent money on television advertisements.

Departmental Expenditure

Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to her written ministerial statement of 21 November 2006,  Official Report, column 27WS, on departmental expenditure limits and administrative costs limits for 2006-07, how many flagpoles were purchased; where the flagpoles have been erected; and if she will make a statement.

David Lammy: The Department purchased 40 steel flagpoles in 2006-07 costing 186,296 (including VAT). These have been erected in the Mall. The 13.5 m poles are required to fly flags for ceremonial events such as state visits and trooping the colour The original timber poles were replaced for health and safety reasons as they were showing significant signs of decay.

Departmental Staff

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many and what percentage of staff employed in her Department were registered disabled in each year since 2001.

David Lammy: The Department collects information on those staff who 'declare' a disability, whether or not they are registered as disabled. The number and percentage of all staff, who have declared a disability is as follows.
	
		
			  As at April each year  Number  Percentage of all staff 
			 2001 10 2.1 
			 2002 9 1.9 
			 2003 9 1.8 
			 2004 10 2.0 
			 2005 12 2.3 
			 2006 14 2.7

DHL

Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department paid to DHL in each financial year between 1997-98 and 2005-06.

David Lammy: DCMS has made no payments to DHL in the specified years.

EnglandNet

Christopher Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment her Department has made of  (a) the ability of EnglandNet to take account of constantly updated information on room availability and  (b) the utility of the system to small hotels and bed and breakfast establishments which do not have computerised room booking systems.

Shaun Woodward: EnglandNet is not a booking service. It is a means by which accommodation providers of all sizes can gain access to the many millions of potential customers across the world who use the visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com websites.
	Accommodation businesses and 'consolidators' (that is, entities which provide a booking service for the accommodation provider) which join EnglandNet retain full control over the room availability details and other information provided on the platform.
	In some cases, the EnglandNet platform will provide full details of room availability before customers are taken to providers' or their consolidators' own websites to make and confirm bookings. In other instances, the customer seeking availability details must transfer to providers' or consolidators' own sites to see this information. In the latter circumstances, all accommodation contact details provided to VisitBritain are displayed via its EnglandNet database. This enables consumers to contact the relevant accommodation businesses in the EnglandNet database directly. The presentation of actual availability information, and of other details of services, is a matter for providers themselves.

EnglandNet

Christopher Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the number of accommodation businesses operated by one or two persons who will use the EnglandNet service.

Shaun Woodward: VisitBritain, which owns EnglandNet and administers it in full partnership with the Regional Development Agencies, does not keep a record of the number of operators per accommodation businesses. Records of accommodation businesses are kept according to the number of rooms or, in the case of self-catering businesses, accommodation units provided. Currently the EnglandNet database contains records of around 27,000 accommodation businesses which have been quality assessed by either VisitBritain or the Automobile Association. Of these, around 21,500 are small and medium-sized enterprises with 15 rooms/units or less.

EnglandNet

Christopher Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the effect of EnglandNet on the operation of  (a) Visit Norfolk and  (b) other regional tourist websites and agencies.

Shaun Woodward: Initiatives such as EnglandNet provide regional tourism agencies with ready access to national and international audiences. Working in partnership with regional development agencies, regional tourist boards, and other agencies, the EnglandNet database presents information through visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com. EnglandNet's aim is to provide a better distribution of regional data on, for example, attractions and accommodation. This includes internet links to regional agency websites such as visitnorfolk.co.uk. as well as content provided voluntarily to EnglandNet by regional bodies.

Lottery Funding

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many  (a) projects or organisations applied for a third consecutive lottery funding grant from the National Lottery Fund and  (b) applications for third consecutive grants were granted in each of the last five years, in each local authority; and if she will make a statement.

David Lammy: The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	148,000 lottery awards have been made in the last five years and the cost of identifying which of these have been to the same projects or recipients would be disproportionate.

Lottery Funding

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has received on the position of organisations which are refused renewals of funding grants for core activity from the national lottery fund; and if she will make a statement.

Richard Caborn: I receive many representations on a wide range of issues relating to the national lottery. Lottery distributors are responsible for decisions on individual grant applications and have policy directions which require them to take into account the need to distribute money to projects only where they are for a specific, time-limited purpose. This reflects the important principle that lottery projects are specific interventions, over a defined period of time, intended to produce a definite result and lasting benefits. Lottery funding is not intended to be long term or indefinite.

Television Licences

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many households in each constituency in Northern Ireland are in receipt of the free television licence for over 75s.

Shaun Woodward: TV Licensing, who administer free television licences for people aged 75 or over as agents for the BBC, are not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, the estimated number of households in each constituency in Northern Ireland with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment in 2005-06, based on records held by the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development, was:
	
		
			  Parliamentary constituency  Estimated number of households with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment, 2005-06( 1) 
			 Belfast East 6,049 
			 Belfast North 5,359 
			 Belfast South 5,180 
			 Belfast West 3,654 
			 East Antrim 4,295 
			 East Londonderry 4,261 
			 Fermanagh and South Tyrone 4,611 
			 Foyle 3,681 
			 Lagan Valley 5,044 
			 Mid Ulster 3,939 
			 Newry and Armagh 4,685 
			 North Antrim 5,683 
			 North Down 5,644 
			 South Antrim 4,276 
			 South Down 5,167 
			 Strangford 5,007 
			 Upper Bann 4,728 
			 West Tyrone 3,875 
			 Missing Postcode(1) 275 
			 Total 85,413 
			 (1 )In producing this analysis, individual records were attributed to parliamentary constituencies (PC's) on the basis of their postcode. Not all records can be correctly allocated to a PC using this method.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Automated Teller Machines

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether stand-alone automated teller machines are liable for business rates.

Phil Woolas: Stand-alone automated teller machines form a rateable hereditament in that the site including any hole-in-the-wall through which it projects, is rateable, together with any associated structure. This structure may compose of the shelter, settings and or foundations of the automated teller machine. The automated teller machine itself, however, is not rateable as it is not a named item in the Valuation for Rating (Plant and Machinery) Regulations 2000 (S.I 2000/540).

Data Sharing

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the presentations and handouts provided at the meeting on data sharing held at her Department on 31 October.

Phil Woolas: Officials' meetings are regularly held on policy issues including data sharing. It is not our practice to circulate internal papers which relate to preparing advice to Ministers on policy matters.

Departmental Expenditure

Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent by her Department on television advertisements in the last year for which figures are available.

Angela Smith: The Department spent 1.5 million on advertising in the financial year 2005-06. The money was used to raise awareness of the devastating effects of a dwelling fire and to advertise a fire safety book which would enable the public to perform a home fire safety check.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many staff were employed on a consultancy basis in  (a) her Department and  (b) each of its agencies in each of the last five years for which information is available; and what the (i) average and (ii) longest period was for which a consultant was employed in each year.

Angela Smith: This information is not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Staff

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether people employed  (a) through employment agencies and  (b) on a consultancy basis are included in the calculations for the full-time equivalent staff mentioned in her Department's annual report.

Angela Smith: No.

Departmental Staff

Ben Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of the divisional manager level posts within her Department  (a) have been filled and  (b) are vacant.

Angela Smith: The Department has filled 84 per cent. of its divisional manager level posts. 16 per cent. are currently vacant.

Departmental Staff

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what percentage of staff employed in her Department were registered disabled in each year since 2001.

Angela Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government came into being on 5 May 2006.
	The Department's predecessor, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, was formed on 29 May 2002 and the requested information may be found in Civil Service Statistics published by the Cabinet Office. Reports for 2003, 2004 and 2005 are available in the House of Commons Library and on the Cabinet Office website at:
	http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/publications
	At March 2006 there were 81 staff3.5 per cent.who declared themselves as disabled.

Draft Code of Conduct for Councillors

Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she expects to publish the revised Draft Code of Conduct for Councillors; and if she will make a statement.

Phil Woolas: We intend to consult on a draft revised code of conduct for local authority members shortly with the aim, subject to the outcome of this consultation, of implementing an amended code well in advance of next year's local elections.

Fire Service

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many  (a) primary and  (b) secondary fires there have been in each fire authority area since 1986, broken down by region.

Angela Smith: The information requested has been placed in the Library of the House.

Fire Service

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research her Department has carried out into the resource implications of climate change for fire and rescue services.

Angela Smith: The Department has carried out a study of the potential effect of climate change in the UK on the fire and rescue services based on scenarios from the most recent UK Climate Impacts programme (UKCIP) technical report.
	The report on this work suggests that the impact of climate change on the workload of the fire and rescue services will be gradual, rather than requiring any immediate change to their resources. This is because the UKCIP scenarios forecast, over the next few decades, a gradual increase in the frequency of extreme weather conditions.
	The report is currently going through the Department's approval procedure and will be issued on the Department's website before the end of the year.

Government Office for London

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total expenditure of the Government Office for London was in each year since 1996-97; and what the forecast figures are for  (a) 2006-07 and  (b) 2007-08.

Angela Smith: Government Office for London's running cost expenditure is as follows:
	
		
			   million 
			   Status  Total 
			 1998-99 Outturn 16.0 
			 1999-2000 Outturn 16.0 
			 2000-01 Outturn 14.7 
			 2001-02 Outturn 13.2 
			 2002-03 Outturn 14.1 
			 2003-04 Outturn 16.7 
			 2004-05 Outturn 18.9 
			 2005-06 Outturn 18.5 
			 2006-07 Forecast 18.2 
			 2007-08 Forecast 17.3 
		
	
	Figures for 1996-97 and 1997-98 are not held.
	Government Office for London's programme expenditure is as follows:
	
		
			   million 
			   Total 
			 1998-99 1,440 
			 1999-2000 2,202 
			 2000-01 1,605 
			 2001-02 2,094 
			 2002-03 2,530 
			 2003-04 2,724 
			 2004-05 3,323 
			 2005-06 2,970 
			 2006-07 3,074 
		
	
	GOL's programme budget for this year, 2006-07, breaks down as follows:
	308 million funding that GOL directly allocates and makes paymentslargely consisting of New Deal for Communities and European funding;
	339 million where GOL manages the programme delivery in London but does not make payments, for example Neighbourhood Renewal Funding on behalf of Communities and Local Government;
	2.427 billion in grants to the Greater London Authority and Transport for London that are paid via GOL to the GLA.
	We do not hold figures for 1996-97 and 1997-98. The figure for 2006-07 is the programme budget, not outturn. Allocations for 2007-08 have not yet been made.

Hotels

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations her Department has received advocating a new local tax on hotel accommodation.

Phil Woolas: Local taxation issues are being considered as part of Sir Michael Lyons's inquiry into local government funding.

Local Government Referendums

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on how many occasions local referendums have been held since the relevant provisions of the Local Government Act 2003 came into force.

Phil Woolas: My Department does not record the number of local authorities who have held a local poll under the Local Government Act 2003.

Muslim Women

Ben Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  what funding her Department provided to the Women's National Commission to carry out research on Muslim women's attitude to becoming more active in their communities; and when the report into this work will be published;
	(2)  what funding her Department provided to the Women's National Commission to carry out research on Muslim women's attitude to becoming more active in their communities and when the report into this work will be published.

Meg Munn: The Department for Communities and Local Government funded the Women's National Commission to undertake five consultation events and three focus groups with Muslim women in 2005-06 at a total cost of 83,700. These events were delivered through the Muslim Women's Network. The independent report will be published on 7 December.

Sexual Orientation Regulations

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the timetable is for the  (a) publication and  (b) parliamentary ratification of the Sexual Orientation Regulations.

Meg Munn: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government made clear to the House on 19 October 2006,  Official Report, column 1014) our intention is to lay the sexual orientation regulations before the House in good time for them to be debated and approved before coming into effect on 6 April 2007.

Sexual Orientation Regulations

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to what parliamentary procedure the Sexual Orientation Regulations will be subject.

Meg Munn: The Sexual Orientation Regulations for Great Britain will be subject to the affirmative procedure, as specified at Section 81 (4) of the Equality Act 2006.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many dwellings in England have value-significant code data for each of the value-significant codes.

Phil Woolas: This information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many domestic properties in England are recorded by the Valuation Office Agency as at a band-margin value.

Phil Woolas: None.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the initial draft numeric value was of the coefficient applied to the variable for a DC dwellinghouse code by the Valuation Office Agency before the council tax revaluation in England was postponed.

Phil Woolas: There is no such dwellinghouse code.

Valuation Office Agency

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether double glazing is a  (a) value significant and  (b) dwelling house code property attribute in the Valuation Office Agency's Automated Valuation Model.

Phil Woolas: Double glazing is neither a  (a) value significant code nor  (b) a property attribute code in the Valuation Office Agency's database.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Benefit Claims

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing time for an  (a) housing and  (b) council tax benefit claim was in each of the last five years.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws), on 8 November 2006,  Official Report, columns 1614-1615.

Benefit Errors

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of how much was paid in error in benefits to those serving terms of imprisonment in each of the last three years.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) on 13 September 2006,  Official Report, column 2369.

Benefits (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)

Michael Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individuals in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency were in receipt of  (a) state pension and  (b) pension credit at (i) 30 December 2005, (ii) 30 March 2006, (iii) 30 June 2006 and (iv) 30 September 2006; and what the average pension credit payment was at each of these dates.

James Purnell: The information is not available in the form requested. Such information as is available is in the following tables.
	
		
			  Pension credit beneficiaries and claimants and the average weekly payment for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk parliamentary constituency: August 2005 to May 2006. 
			  Quarter  Beneficiaries  Claimants  Average Weekly Payment 
			 May 2006 6,500 5,300 38.33 
			 February 2006 6,490 5,280 35.42 
			 November 2005 6,490 5,300 35.75 
			 August 2005 6,480 5,290 35.60 
		
	
	
		
			  State pension recipients for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk parliamentary constituency: August 2005 to May 2006. 
			  Quarter  Total 
			 May 2006 20,650 
			 February 2006 20,540 
			 November 2005 20,520 
			 August 2005 20,490 
			  Notes. Caseload figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Average amounts are shown as pounds per week and rounded to the nearest penny. Pension credit claimantsincludes people who are one of a couple and have claimed on behalf of both members of the couple. Parliamentary constituencies are those for the Westminster Parliament.  Source :  DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

Benefits (Bexleyheath and Crayford)

David Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Bexleyheath and Crayford received  (a) income support,  (b) pension credit and  (c) disability living allowance in 2005-06.

James Plaskitt: The available information is in the table.
	
		
			  Income support, pension credit and disability living allowance recipients in Bexleyheath and Crayford parliamentary constituency at the quarters shown 
			   Income Support  Pension Credit  Disability Living Allowance 
			 May 2005 2,270 2,780 2,940 
			 August 2005 2,290 2,800 2,960 
			 November 2005 2,310 2,810 3,200 
			 February 2006 2,320 2,790 3,040 
			  Notes: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Income support figures exclude residual minimum income guarantee claimants. 3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory. 4. Pension credit recipients are those people who claim pension credit either on behalf of themselves only or on behalf of a household. This number is equal to the number of households in receipt of pension credit. 5. Disability Living Allowance figures show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital.  Source: 100 per cent Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study

Child Support Agency

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on progress with reforms to the Child Support Agency.

James Plaskitt: holding answer 27 November 2006
	We are currently developing plans for introducing a new system of child support. As part of this we are considering the most cost-effective way of moving to, and administering, the new system.
	We are carrying out an intensive programme of work to determine the way forward and plan to publish detailed proposals in a White Paper.

Child Support Agency

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Coventry, South have received ex-gratia payments from the Child Support Agency in the last five years.

James Plaskitt: The Child Support Agency's financial accounting systems do not enable us to report expenditure or transactions on a parliamentary constituency basis.

Cold Weather Payments

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households in Coventry, South which are not pensioner households are entitled to cold weather payments.

James Plaskitt: The information is not available.

Company Pensions

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what protection is provided to members of a company pension scheme in respect of terms, conditions and benefits of the scheme when the company is sold to a company which is not incorporated in the EU.

James Purnell: Members of a UK occupational pension scheme are covered by the statutory provisions irrespective of where the sponsoring company or its parent company is incorporated. Therefore, these schemes will be regulated by the Pensions Regulator and if they are defined benefit schemes members' pensions will be covered by the Pension Protection Fund.
	If a new employer (irrespective of where it is incorporated) purchases a UK incorporated company which operates an occupational pension scheme, that new employer must, as part of the TUPE(1) arrangements, ensure that it offers its new (UK) employees access to either an occupational pension scheme or stakeholder pension.
	(1) The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment Regulations 2006 (SI2006/246)

Fuel Poverty

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households which are not pensioner households are entitled to cold weather payments; and what plans he has to provide additional help to those householders who may be suffering from fuel poverty.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) on 8 November 2006,  Official Report, column 1628W.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many discretionary housing payments were awarded in each London local authority in each of the last five years; and what the average value was of those payments during that period.

James Plaskitt: The information is not available.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations on simplifying the non-dependant deduction received in response to Quality and choice: a decent home for all his Department has considered.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander) on 1 February 2006,  Official Report, column 590W.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what action he is taking to ensure that housing benefit claimants facing benefit shortfalls are made aware of the availability of discretionary housing payments to help with their rent.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 8 November 2006,  Official Report, columns 1626-27W.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average housing benefit payment was to households in temporary accommodation in each London local authority in each of the last five years.

James Plaskitt: The information is not available.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many housing benefit claims were subject to each rate of non-dependant deduction in 2005-06; how many claimants in each rate lived in  (a) council housing,  (b) registered social landlord housing and  (c) the private rented sector; and what percentage of total housing benefit claims each group represents.

James Plaskitt: Information for 2005-06 is not available.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of housing benefit claims were subject to a non-dependent deduction for which the claimant was  (a) registered disabled,  (b) over 60 years old,  (c) in receipt of income support or jobseeker's allowance and  (d) a lone parent in 2005-06.

James Plaskitt: Information for 2005-06 is not yet available.

Housing

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which organisations  (a) were in favour of and  (b) opposed the simplification or reform of the housing benefit non-dependant deduction regime proposed in the housing Green Paper referred to in the answer of 1 February 2006 on benefits.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander) on 27 February 2006,  Official Report, column 246W.

Housing

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average housing benefit payment was to households in temporary accommodation in Coventry in each of the last five years.

James Plaskitt: The information is not available.

Means-testing

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of pensioners being means-tested to receive  (a) pensions and  (b) other benefits.

James Purnell: The answer is in the following table. For comparison, at the same date 10.4 million people were in receipt of the state pension.
	
		
			  Number of pensioner households in Great Britain in receipt of income related benefits: May 2004 
			   Pensioner households 
			  (a) Pensions(1) 2,490,000 
			  (b) Other benefits(2) 630,000 
			 (1) Pensions includes pension credit only. (2) Other benefits includes MIG/IS, JSA(IB), HB and CTB where the pensioner is not also in receipt of pension credit.  Notes: 1. Income-related benefits are pension credit, minimum income guarantee/income support for those aged 60 and above (MIG/IS), income-based jobseeker's allowance (JSA(IB)), housing benefit (HB) and council tax benefit (CTB). 2. The figures relate to households where the claimant and/or the claimant's partner is aged 60 or over, and are for May 2004, which is the latest date for which it is possible remove overlaps between housing benefit and council tax benefit and the other income related benefits. 3. Pensioner households contain a claimant and/or claimant's partner who is aged 60 or over. 4. Figures based on 1 per cent. and 5 per cent. samples are subject to sampling variation. JSA(IB), information concerning partners of pension credit and MIG/IS claimants are derived from 5 per cent. sample data and HB/CTB figures are derived from 1 per cent. samples. 5. Due to the estimation procedure to produce the figures for housing benefit and/or council tax benefit, figures have been rounded to the nearest 10,000. 6. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 7. CTB data exclude second adult rebate cases. 8. HB data exclude any extended payment cases. 9. Some income-based JSA claimants may also have entitlement to benefit via the contributory route.  Source: DWP 1 per cent. samples (housing benefit/council tax benefit), 5 per cent. samples Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.

Part-time Study Rule

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  if he will make a statement on reform of the part-time study rule to enable young people to study full-time while in receipt of housing benefit;
	(2)  if he will carry out a cost-benefit analysis of the effect of  (a) abolishing and  (b) changing the part-time study rule for housing benefit.

James Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) on 8 November 2006,  Official Report, column 1636.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Chelmsford Court

Simon Burns: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on the current status of the private finance initiative scheme for a new magistrates and coroners' court in Chelmsford; when she expects the scheme to be approved; and when she expects building to commence.

Harriet Harman: The Chelmsford project continues to be within the programme of new court building schemes. However, at this stage I am not in a position to confirm the status of the Chelmsford project, or the wider court building programme, as discussions with HM Treasury are still ongoing as part of the comprehensive spending review (CSR) 2007.

Coroners

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs 
	(1)  what additional resources will be allocated to the coroners' system to achieve 24 hour on-call cover by coroners' officers;
	(2)  how many coroners' districts  (a) have and  (b) do not have on-call cover 24 hours per day;
	(3)  whether the Department's plans for 24-hour cover from coroners' officers take account of regulations on working time.

Harriet Harman: Rule 4 of the Coroners Rules 1984 requires a coroner to be ready at all times to undertake duties in connection with inquests and post-mortem examinations, either in person or by deputy or assistant deputy. All coroners' districts should therefore have 24 hour on-call coverage, and I am not aware of any that do not. A requirement to contact the next-of-kin within 24 hours of a death being reported is included only within the illustrative draft charter for bereaved people which accompanied the draft Bill on coroner reform. The provisions in the charter are not intended to alter the employment terms and conditions of coroner's officers. The charter will be subject to further consultation, and amendment where necessary, when the Bill has received Royal Assent.

Coroners

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the evidential basis is for the Department's conclusion that the work load of coroners' officers will not increase under proposed changes to the system.

Harriet Harman: The proposals in the draft Bill do not produce any increase in overall case load or work load. Coroners and coroner's officers will continue to deal with about the same amount of cases each yearin 2005, they had 232,400 reported to them.

Coroners

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what account was taken of  (a) case load and  (b) work load in assessing the work of coroners' offices.

Harriet Harman: In preparing the draft Bill, I considered whether the proposals would lead directly to any increase in the case load or work load for coroners and their offices, and concluded that they would not. The draft Bill was subject to consultation, which closed on 8 September. A report of the outcome will be published shortly.

Coroners

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the current work load of coroners' officers.

Harriet Harman: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to this question on 6 November 2006,  Official Report, column 853W.

Coroners

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resources available to the system of coroners' officers; and what evidence she has sought on this matter.

Harriet Harman: Coroner's officers are resourced by local authorities and police authorities. My officials meet regularly with the Coroner's Officers Association and individual coroners to discuss issues and developments.

Court House (Salisbury)

Robert Key: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when work will start on the construction of the new Court House in Salisbury; when the new courts will be in service; and what the estimated cost is of the project.

Harriet Harman: Construction on the new Court House in Salisbury is expected to start in May 2007, with the new facility being open for service in January 2009. It will be built as a Private Developer Scheme (PDS) which means that HMCS will be spending less than 1 million in fees, and will not take a capital risk. Instead we will take a guaranteed lease from the successful bidder who will take that risk. We expect that the capital cost of the project to the developer will be approximately 14.5 million.

Crown Court

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many criminal cases were brought in the Crown courts in each of the last five years.

Harriet Harman: Figures relating to the number of cases received by the Crown court centres in the past five years are set out in the following table.
	
		
			   2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
			 Committed/Sent for trial 80,551 83,449 84,412 79,232 80,021 
			 Committed for sentence 25,960 28,837 30,757 31,156 32,937 
			 Criminal appeals 11,818 11,144 11,180 12,099 12,022 
			  Note: Receipts include committals direct from PSD's, bench warrants executed and cases transferred in, less cases transferred out.

Departmental Expenditure

Hugo Swire: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much was spent by her Department on television advertisements in the last year for which figures are available.

Vera Baird: My Department has not commissioned any TV advertising since it was established in June 2003.

Dispersal Orders

Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the largest amount paid has been in legal aid in respect of  (a) an individual and  (b) a group appealing against a dispersal order.

Vera Baird: This information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Family Court Centres

Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when she expects the results of the consultation, HM Court Service London Region Proposals for Network of Family Courts Centres to be announced.

Harriet Harman: As indicated in the consultation paper entitled HMCS London Region Proposals for a Network of Family Courts Centres, a paper summarising the responses received will be published in December 2006 by being made available online at http://www.dca.gov/index.htm The region is currently considering the suggestions made in the 60 responses received and will be using this information to inform business planning discussions for 2007-08. It is expected that the results of consultation will be announced in March 2007 as part of this business planning process. Any proposals or suggestions that the region wishes to take forward, that affect individual courthouse use, will be discussed locally with judiciary, staff and court users.

High Court

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the average length of a trial was in the High Court in the last five years.

Harriet Harman: Information of this nature is held only for trials heard in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court and is collected during a sampling exercise each February and November.
	Figures relating to the average length of Queen's Bench trials for the five-year period 2000-04 are set out in the following table.
	
		
			   Average length 
			 2000 6 hours 46 minutes 
			 2001 7 hours 54 minutes 
			 2002 12 hours 48 minutes 
			 2003 13 hours 27 minutes 
			 2004 5 hours 42 minutes

Jury Service

Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what checks she makes to ensure that those serving on juries are entitled to do so.

Harriet Harman: Under the Juries Act 1974 you are qualified to serve as a juror if: you are for the time being registered as a parliamentary or local government elector; you are aged between 18 and 69; you have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for any period of at least five years since attaining the age of 13; you have not been given various criminal sentences within specified periods; you are not on bail; and you do not suffer from a mental disorder as defined by the Act.
	Jurors are selected from the electoral register. On their summons reply jurors are asked to declare whether they are disqualified from jury service under any of the categories referred to above. Before confirming jury service the Jury Central Summoning Bureau runs a check against the Police National Computer system to confirm the juror is not disqualified by virtue of being on bail or having received a relevant criminal sentence within a disqualifying period.

Litigants in Person

John Hemming: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs why the rate at which litigants in person can claim costs has not risen since 1995; what estimate she has made of the additional costs to the Government were this rate to rise; and if she will raise the rate at which litigants in person can claim costs.

Vera Baird: holding answer 23 November 2006
	The hourly rate payable to litigants in person was reviewed in 2003 by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, when it was decided that the rate should remain at the existing level. No estimate has been made of additional costs, should the rate be raised and there are no plans to raise the rate at present.
	Civil Procedure Rule 48.6(2) provides that where the litigants in person can prove financial loss (greater than 9.25) has occurred due to time he has reasonably spent on doing the work, he is entitled to claim up to two thirds of the amount which would have been allowed if he had been legally represented.

Magistrates

David Burrowes: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of the reintroduction of the means test in magistrates' courts on the criminal justice system.

Vera Baird: The predicted savings from restoring the means test in magistrates courts are occurring and such delays, as the need for applications has produced, are also as predicted and are under regular review. For instance, I recently announced a package of changes to improve the operational effectiveness of the new scheme.

Military Personnel (Inquests)

Alan Beith: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on the outcome of the recent meeting with Mr. David Johnson, US Deputy Ambassador, concerning attendance of US service personnel at the inquests of British soldiers killed in friendly fire incidents in Iraq.

Harriet Harman: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) on 22 November 2006,  Official Report, column 87W.

Parliamentary Questions

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether her Department uses an internal traffic light or colour-coded system in relation to written parliamentary questions; and whether her Department grades or classifies written parliamentary questions according to their political sensitivity.

David Laws: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether her Department has a traffic light system in place for processing parliamentary questions, where questions are categorised using a colour code.

Vera Baird: My Department does not use an internal traffic light or colour coded system to answer parliamentary questions. Neither does it grade or classify written parliamentary questions according to their political sensitivity. We endeavour to reply to all parliamentary questions within parliamentary deadlines.

Private Finance Initiatives

Mark Francois: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by her Department which has reached financial close; over what period repayments will take place; and what the total cost of repayment will be in each case.

Harriet Harman: There are a total of 11 PFI schemes providing 16 Court Houses, a facility for the storage and retrieval of probate records and two IT projects. The total capital value of these schemes is about 272 million with a projected whole life cost over their respective concession periods of about 1,361 million. Details of each are in the following table.
	
		
			  Scheme  Cap value  ( million)  Period (years)  Total cost of repayment  ( million) 
			 Hereford, Kidderminster, Worcester and Redditch Magistrates Courts 25 25 109.4 
			 Hull, Beverley and Bridlington Magistrates Courts 19 25 117.9 
			 Derby and Chesterfield Magistrates Courts 31 25 184.5 
			 Manchester Magistrates Courts 30 25 114.8 
			 Exeter Combined Courts 15 25 76.0 
			 Ipswich and Cambridge Crown Courts 25 25 75.4 
			 Sheffield Family Hearing Centre 5 25 19.8 
			 North Somerset (Worle) and Bristol Magistrates Courts 45 25 207.0 
			 Probate Storage Facility 11 25 46.0 
			 LOCCs Project 27 10 159.0 
			 LIBRA Project 39 7 252.0 
			 Total 272  1,361.8

DUCHY OF LANCASTER

Bills (Queen's Speech)

Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the name is of each Bill submitted to the Committee on Legislative Programme which was not in this year's Queen's Speech.

Hilary Armstrong: The terms of reference of the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Programme (LP) are to consider legislation and related matters. Information relating to proceedings of Cabinet Committees is generally not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.
	My right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr. Straw) is Chair of LP. I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement made by my right hon. Friend on 16 November 2006,  Official Report, columns 7-8WS, listing Bills in the legislative programme, including those not referred to in the Queen's Speech. A summary of the proposed content of each of the Bills in the programme has been placed in the Library for the reference of Members. It can be found on the website of the Leader of the House of Commons at:
	http://www.commonsleader.gov.uk

Departmental Contracts

Oliver Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what  (a) contracts have been awarded and  (b) payments have been made to Freud Communications by (i) the Prime Minister's Office and (ii) the Cabinet Office since May 1997.

Hilary Armstrong: The Prime Minister's Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and therefore the answer provided is for the whole of the Cabinet Office including the Prime Minister's Office.
	The Cabinet Office has not entered into any contracts or made any payments to Freud Communications since May 1997.

Mr. Alastair Campbell

Oliver Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether Mr. Alastair Campbell has received payment from public funds in relation to his work for the Cabinet Office, including the Prime Minister's Office, since his resignation as Director of Communications and Strategy in 2003.

Hilary Armstrong: No.

Parliamentary Questions

Oliver Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether her Department uses an internal traffic light system in relation to written Parliamentary Questions.

Hilary Armstrong: The Department aims wherever possible to answer all parliamentary questions within parliamentary deadlines.

Special Advisers/Consultants

Oliver Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 
	(1)  how much was spent on external consultants and advisers by  (a) the Prime Minister's Office and  (b) the Cabinet Office in each year since 1997-98; and what the expected costs are in 2006-07;
	(2)  how much was paid in fees by  (a) the Cabinet Office and  (b) the Prime Minister's Office to external consultants in the 2005-06 financial year.

Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much was spent by her Department on consultants in each year since 1997.

Hilary Armstrong: The Prime Minister's Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and therefore the answer provided is for the whole of the Cabinet Office including the Prime Minister's Office.
	Expenditure on external consultants and advisers incurred in my Department in each year since 1997-98 is shown in the following table.
	
		
			million 
			 1997-98 5.5 
			 1998-99 7.4 
			 1999-2000 10.2 
			 2000-01 10.9 
			 2001-02 16.9 
			 2002-03 13.4 
			 2003-04 15.9 
			 2004-05 12.7 
			 2005-06 22.0 
		
	
	The increased costs between 2004-05 and 2005-06 relate mainly to expenditure on shared services, feasibility work, SCOPE cross-departmental information strategy, development of the Government Gateway, departmental capability reviews and advice on our land and buildings.
	Costs incurred on external consultants and advisers in 2006-07 will be available only when the Department's resource accounts are fully audited and laid before Parliament. This is expected to be before the 2007 summer recess.

Training and Development (Civil Servants)

Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the average expenditure by her Department was on training and development per person in each civil service grade for the most recent year for which figures are available.

Patrick McFadden: The information by grade is not collected centrally.
	For the year Saturday 1 October 2005 to Saturday 30 September 2006 the annual expenditure on training and development by the Department was 2,711,797.
	This equates to an average annual spend of 1,572 per person on training and development during the same period.

V

John Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what programmes to encourage volunteering are being undertaken by V; and how much match funding has been provided to V since its launch.

Edward Miliband: V has undertaken the Grants 1 funding round, with short-term projects being awarded funding in July 2006 and part-time, long-term or volunteer development teams being funded in October 2006. The Grants 1 funding round has created just over 42,000 volunteering opportunities.
	The volunteering projects cover a wide range of programmes with traditional organisations extending their reach to young people and new projects which involve young people as never before. Opportunities range from activities with large, well-known charities such as the British Red Cross, which is providing opportunities in peer education where young people deliver first aid training or humanitarian education to other young people, to small, local projects such as the opportunities provided by Youth A.I.D Lewisham, a community based voluntary youth organisation which provides advice, information and development services across the borough. Programmes funded through the V grants have a wide geographical spread across England and are found in both urban and rural areas to increase opportunities to volunteer for young people in a variety of communities.
	The programmes provide opportunities for young people to engage with their community, develop skills, increase confidence, meet other young people, reduce social exclusion and extend their opportunities for training to increase opportunities for employment.
	V has received 3,450,000 in match funding to date, creating 19,527 volunteering opportunities and has pledges from the private sector worth 17.1 million.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Asylum Seekers

Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were granted asylum on grounds of religious persecution in each year since 1997.

Liam Byrne: holding answer 27 November 2006
	The requested information is unavailable and could be obtained only by examination of individual case records and therefore at disproportionate cost.

Asylum Seekers

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the percentage of asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2006 who now reside in Wales.

Liam Byrne: The percentage of asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2006 who now reside in Wales is not available and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
	Statistics on the location of asylum seekers in the UK are linked to the available information on the support that the asylum seeker receives. The number of asylum seekers in receipt of support from IND are published on a quarterly and annual basis, broken down by Government office region and local authority. The latest publication covering the third quarter of 2006 is available on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics website at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
	Further breakdowns by parliamentary constituency are also available from the Library of the House.

Attacks on Faith Groups

Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of assaults on  (a) Christians,  (b) Jews,  (c) Muslims,  (d) Hindus,  (e) Sikhs and  (f) members of other faith groups that have taken place during the past five years.

Vernon Coaker: holding answer 27 November 2006
	Recorded crime figures collected centrally by the Home Office do not record the religion of the victim.

Criminal Records Bureau

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how unproven allegations of child abuse are recorded by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB); how many such allegations are on CRB records; what procedure there is for the removal of an unfounded allegation; and if he will make a statement.

Joan Ryan: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not hold criminal records or records of allegations. Rather, in processing Disclosure applications, the CRB obtains information held by the police service and from lists held by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health which contain details of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. Where Enhanced Disclosures are made, police information may include intelligence considered relevant to the application by the chief officer of police responsible for the data.
	A disputes procedure exists where the accuracy of disclosed material can be challenged by the applicant. In addition, an individual may apply to the police for information to be deleted from the record. The retention or disposal of intelligence material held by the police is entirely a matter for the chief officer.

Criminal Records Bureau

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment the Government have made of the effect of records kept by the Criminal Records Bureau on the ability of those on whom records are kept  (a) to find employment and  (b) to adopt children; and if he will make a statement.

Joan Ryan: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not hold criminal records or records of allegations. Rather, in processing disclosure applications, the CRB obtains information held by the police service and from lists held by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health which contain details of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. Where enhanced disclosures are made, police information may include intelligence considered relevant to the application by the chief officer of police responsible for the data.
	A disputes procedure exists where the accuracy of disclosed material can be challenged by the applicant. In addition, an individual may apply to the police for information to be deleted from the record. The retention or disposal of intelligence material held by the police is entirely a matter for the chief officer.
	Independent research shows that, of the 2.7 million checks completed in 2005, over 190,000 revealed conviction or other information on an individual. In nine out of 10 cases, this information did not result in the individual being refused the position he or she sought. The majority of the convictions that resulted in the job offer being withdrawn were for theft and violence. Statistics are not held centrally on the success of applicants seeking to adopt.
	The CRB offers guidance to users of the service in the form of a code of practice and explanatory guide, which states that disclosure information should only be used in the context of a policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders, designed to protect applicants from unfair discrimination on the basis of non-relevant past convictions. However it is ultimately for an employer to decide an applicant's suitability for a particular role.

Departmental Staff

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what investigations he has carried out into the number of members of the Hizb ut Tahrir employed by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Tony McNulty: Home Office staff are not required to declare membership of Hizb ut Tahrir.

Departmental Targets

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what formal targets his Department was set by the Treasury in each year since 1996.

Liam Byrne: The new public service agreement targets for the Home Office for 1998 were set by the Treasury as part of the comprehensive spending review,
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./spending_review/spend_csr98/spend_csr98jndex.cfm
	and announced through the White Paper.
	http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm40/4011/4011 .htm
	Formal targets are set during the spending review round which outlines the Department's plans for a three-year period.
	Targets for the remaining SR periods can be found on the following sites:  SR2000
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./spending_review/spending_review_2000/spending_revi ew_report/ spend_sr00_repchap10.cfm
	 SR2002
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./Spending_Review/spend_sr02/report/spend_sr02_repc hapl0.cfm
	 SR2004
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/E99/79/sr04_psa_ch6.pdf.

Driving Licences

Greg Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the owner of a vehicle which has been involved in an accident while unattended is required to present his or her driving licence to the police; and if he will make a statement.

Tony McNulty: In the circumstances described the police have no power to require the production of a driving licence from the owner of the vehicle. They may make such a requirement only of a person driving a vehicle, of a person reasonably believed to have been driving a vehicle at the time of its involvement in an accident, of a person reasonably believed to have committed an offence with the vehicle and of the supervisor of a provisional licence holder.

Foreign Prisoners

Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals are in prison, broken down by country of origin.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of foreign nationals held in prison establishments in England and Wales, broken down by country of origin, can be found in the following table drawn from data held on the Prison IT system, showing the position on 30 September 2006.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
	
		
			  Population in prison by nationality and sex, England and Wales  30 September 2006 
			  Nationality  Male  Female  Total 
			 All nationalities 74,782 4,573 79,355 
			 UK nationals 64,063 3,539 67,602 
			 Foreign nationals 9,988 940 10,928 
			 Not recorded 731 94 825 
			 
			  Total Africa 2,708 342 3,051 
			 Angola 69 5 74 
			 Burundi 9 1 10 
			 Dahomey (Benin) 10 0 10 
			 Botswana 4 0 4 
			 Ivory Coast 26 2 28 
			 Central African Republic 7 0 7 
			 Congo 106 3 109 
			 Cameroon. United Republic 33 2 35 
			 Cape Verde 1 0 1 
			 Algeria 206 0 206 
			 Egypt 9 1 10 
			 Ethiopia 68 2 70 
			 Ghana 177 29 206 
			 Gambia 40 3 43 
			 Guinea 15 0 15 
			 Equatorial Guinea 1 0 1 
			 Guinea/Bissau 3 0 3 
			 Kenya 50 5 55 
			 Liberia 27 4 31 
			 Libya 31 0 31 
			 Morocco 48 3 51 
			 Mali 1 0 1 
			 Mauritania 1 0 1 
			 Mauritius 24 1 25 
			 Malawi 11 1 12 
			 Mozambique 1 0 1 
			 Namibia 4 1 5 
			 Niger 3 0 3 
			 Nigeria 762 212 974 
			 Rwanda 15 0 15 
			 Seychelles 1 0 1 
			 Sudan 53 1 54 
			 Sierra Leone 86 5 91 
			 Senegal 9 0 9 
			 Somalia 335 14 350 
			 Chad 1 0 1 
			 Togo 8 4 13 
			 Tunisia 18 0 18 
			 Tanzania 18 0 18 
			 Uganda 84 6 90 
			 Western Sahara 1 0 1 
			 South Africa 139 23 162 
			 Zambia 14 2 16 
			 Congo, Democratic Republic 32 0 32 
			 Zimbabwe 145 15 159 
			 
			  Total Asia 1,607 94 1,701 
			 Bangladesh 197 1 198 
			 Bhutan 1 0 1 
			 Burma 4 1 5 
			 China 242 37 279 
			 Hong Kong 7 0 7 
			 Indonesia 4 0 4 
			 India 261 9 271 
			 Japan 1 0 1 
			 Cambodia 1 0 1 
			 Korea Republic of (Sth) 3 0 3 
			 Sri Lanka 157 0 157 
			 Myanmar, Union of (Burma) 1 0 1 
			 Mongolia 6 0 6 
			 Malaysia 24 4 28 
			 Nepal 4 0 4 
			 Philippines 12 4 16 
			 Pakistan 430 6 437 
			 Singapore 2 0 2 
			 Thailand 2 4 6 
			 Taiwan (Nationalist Chinese) 1 0 1 
			 Vietnam 246 26 272 
			 
			  Total Central and South America 312 56 368 
			 Argentina 3 1 4 
			 Bolivia 4 1 5 
			 Brazil 43 14 57 
			 Belize 3 0 3 
			 Chile 15 1 16 
			 Columbia 120 14 135 
			 Costa Rica 4 0 4 
			 Ecuador 12 1 13 
			 French Guyana 4 0 4 
			 Guatemala 4 0 4 
			 Guyana 30 8 38 
			 Honduras 1 0 1 
			 Mexico 13 1 14 
			 Panama 2 1 3 
			 Peru 5 0 5 
			 Paraguay 1 0 1 
			 Surinam 7 1 8 
			 South Georgia 1 0 1 
			 El Salvador 0 3 3 
			 Uruguay 3 0 3 
			 Venezuela 37 10 47 
			 
			  Total Europe 2,922 233 3,155 
			 Albania 127 4 131 
			 Armenia 4 0 4 
			 Austria 9 3 12 
			 Azerbaijan 3 0 3 
			 Bosnia-Herzegovina 6 5 11 
			 Belgium 43 4 47 
			 Bulgaria 10 0 10 
			 Croatia 10 2 11 
			 Switzerland 4 2 6 
			 Czech Republic 31 5 36 
			 Cyprus 61 2 63 
			 Germany 113 18 131 
			 Denmark 10 1 11 
			 Estonia 16 0 16 
			 Spain 74 13 87 
			 Finland 3 0 3 
			 France 154 17 171 
			 Georgia 13 0 13 
			 Gibraltar 2 0 2 
			 Greece 24 4 28 
			 Hungary 19 1 20 
			 Irish Republic 643 48 692 
			 Iceland 1 0 1 
			 Italy 117 9 126 
			 Kazakhstan 2 1 3 
			 Kyrgyzstan 4 0 4 
			 Lithuania 177 13 190 
			 Latvia 49 2 51 
			 Moldova 33 0 33 
			 Macedonia 5 0 5 
			 Serbia and Montenegro 98 0 98 
			 Malta 10 0 10 
			 Netherlands 118 29 147 
			 Norway 5 0 5 
			 Poland 240 9 248 
			 Portugal 159 13 172 
			 Romania 130 10 140 
			 Sweden 8 6 14 
			 Slovakia 18 4 22 
			 Slovenia 3 1 4 
			 Russia 104 9 113 
			 Turkey 255 1 256 
			 Turkmenistan 2 0 2 
			 Uzbekistan 3 0 3 
			 
			  Total Middle East 647 6 652 
			 United Arab Emirates 5 0 5 
			 Afghanistan 89 1 90 
			 Iran 188 3 191 
			 Israel 20 0 20 
			 Iraq 269 0 269 
			 Jordan 11 0 11 
			 Kuwait 14 0 14 
			 Lebanon 26 1 27 
			 Oman 1 0 1 
			 Saudi Arabia 12 1 13 
			 Syrian Arab Republic 3 0 3 
			 Yemen, Republic of 8 0 8 
			 
			  Total North America 102 25 127 
			 Canada 21 5 26 
			 United States of America 81 20 101 
			 
			  Total Oceania 38 4 42 
			 Australia 19 1 20 
			 Fiji 11 2 13 
			 French Southern Territories 1 0 1 
			 Kiribati 1 0 1 
			 New Zealand 6 1 7 
			 
			  Total other 7 0 7 
			 
			  Total unrecorded 731 94 825 
			 
			  West Indies 1,644 181 1,826 
			 Aruba 1 0 1 
			 Anguilla 1 0 1 
			 Netherlands Antilles 23 8 31 
			 Barbados 27 3 30 
			 Bermuda 4 0 4 
			 Bahamas 4 0 4 
			 Cuba 1 0 1 
			 Dominica 4 0 4 
			 Dominican Republic 8 2 10 
			 Grenada 27 6 34 
			 Haiti 2 0 2 
			 Jamaica 1,406 132 1,538 
			 St Lucia 23 6 29 
			 Montserrat 17 0 17 
			 St Christopher and Nevis 1 0 1 
			 St Kitts and Nevis 2 0 2 
			 Trinidad and Tobago 79 23 103 
			 St Vincent and The Grenadines 12 1 13

Freedom of Information

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of the internal Home Office guidance documents on  (a) answering parliamentary questions for written answer and  (b) responses to Freedom of Information requests.

Mark Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of his Department's internal guidance documents concerning  (a) answers to written parliamentary questions and  (b) responses to freedom of information requests.

Tony McNulty: The information is as follows.
	 (a) The Home Office provides guidance to officials on written parliamentary questions through its intranet. This guidance is under review as part of the Home Secretary's commitment to reform the Home Office and to improve the way that the Department's fulfils its obligations to Parliament. I will arrange for this guidance to be placed in the Library in December following that review. In addition to this guidance, the permanent secretary meets with service heads and directors on a weekly basis at which time they provide him with an update on the Department's answering of written parliamentary questions.
	 (b) The Home Office possesses several sets of guidance on the handling of Freedom of Information requests to reflect local procedures in some parts of the Department and its executive agencies. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), HM Prison Service, Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Identity and Passport Service (IPS) all possess their own guidance, while the remainder of the Department is served by a further set. I will arrange for this guidance to be placed in the Library by the end of December when a new edition of the current guidance for those parts of the Department not covered by the local guidance will be published internally.
	The HMPS guidance is already in the public domain at:
	http://pso.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSO_9020_data_protection_act_1998_and_freedom_of_info_ act.doc.

Gender Equality

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to ensure that  (a) his Department and  (b) the non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies for which he is responsible are taking steps to meet the requirements of the forthcoming duty on public bodies (i) to end unlawful discrimination and harassment and (ii) to promote equality between women and men.

Liam Byrne: In order to ensure better performance on the general gender equality duty which will require public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and harassment and promote equality of opportunity between women and men, my Department will be taking the steps outlined in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) Order 2006 (No. 2930) which should come into force on 6 April 2007.

Identity Cards/Passports

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role local authorities will play in the  (a) administration and  (b) populating of the National Identity Card and National Identity Register.

Joan Ryan: The Identity and Passport Service will be responsible for the administration and population of the National Identity Card and National Identity Register.

Identity Cards/Passports

Mark Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what  (a) computer software and  (b) IT equipment his Department has purchased in the last 24 months in connection with the (i) Identity Cards Project and (ii) National Identity Register.

Joan Ryan: The Identity and Passport Service has purchased licensed versions of three pieces of software specifically in connection with work being conducted for the development of identity cards in this time period. They are:
	(1) The Doors computer software programme for the purpose of managing requirements during forthcoming procurement processes.
	(2) The CompanyWatch computer software programme for the purposes of analysing the financial health of potential suppliers.
	(3) The Change Director computer software programme for mapping benefits arising from change programmes.
	Other than this purchase, there has been no specific expenditure on computer software and IT equipment for the purposes mentioned in the question outside of the provision of standard office equipment (e.g. desktops and standard software).

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many  (a) training days and  (b) away days were held by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in each of the last five years.

Liam Byrne: Some 48,969 training days were provided by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate College in 2005-06, with 33,522 provided in 2004-05. Figures are not available for earlier years.
	The figures do not represent all training undertaken by IND staff, for example by e-Learning, or by training organised locally (which is not recorded centrally).
	There is no central record of the numbers of away days.

Leave to Remain

George Mudie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the date of application was in respect of the last case of a claim for extension of discretionary leave to remain decided upon in the week commencing 23 October 2006 by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

Liam Byrne: Local records show that the last application for an extension of discretionary leave considered during the week commencing 23 October 2006 had an application date of 1 March 2006.

Met Police Exhibit (Earl's Court)

Greg Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total cost was of  (a) the Metropolitan police traffic operational command unit's exhibit at the Miles Per Hour 2006 show at Earl's Court and  (b) purchasing or hiring, repainting and displaying a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 at this exhibit.

Tony McNulty: I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that there was no cost involved.
	The exhibit stand was provided free of charge, the Lamborghini Mucielago LP640 was loaned at no cost to the Metropolitan police and all additional modifications to the vehicle were paid for by sponsors.

National Offender Management Service

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria are taken into account by the National Offender Management Service in deciding to award a contract to a non-public sector trust.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The National Offender Management Service manages its competitions in compliance with the appropriate European competition rules. Accordingly, the evaluation criteria will be dependent upon the scope and nature of services being competed for. All tenders for a given competition will be evaluated against the same criteria. Bidders are advised of the criteria upon which their tenders will be evaluated at the time of invitation.

Offences

Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what offences have been created by  (a) primary and  (b) secondary legislation sponsored by his Department since 1997; and which of those offences have not yet been brought into force.

Tony McNulty: In the period since 1997, the Home Office has had responsibility for a wide range of subjects some of which have now become the responsibility of other Departments. In that period, the Home Office has sponsored primary and secondary legislation on electoral law, data protection and licensing as well as immigration and nationality, terrorism and criminal law and criminal justice. In some cases, the legislation has created new offences; in other cases, it has re-enacted existing offences, sometimes with modifications to their extent or scope.
	A list of the offences created in all Home Office legislation in the period since 1997 is not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost in time and resources.

Parliamentary Questions

Anthony Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the reasons were for the delay in answering Question reference 68428, tabled on 2 May by the hon. Member for Totnes, about Channings Wood Prison.

Gerry Sutcliffe: holding answer 23 November 2006
	I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in answering this question, which was one of the huge number of PQs tabled to the Department on foreign national prisoners, at a time when resources in the Immigration and Nationality Department were focused on dealing and locating those foreign national prisoners released without deportation consideration.

Police

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers per 1,000 of the population there were in Cambridgeshire in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Tony McNulty: holding answer 23 November 2006
	Tables within the Home Office Statistical Bulletins on Police Service Strength contain the required information per 100,000 of the population and these data are also given in the following table. The most recent Police Service Strength bulletin can be downloaded from:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1306.pdf
	
		
			  Police officers per 100,000 of the population for Cambridgeshire police force as at 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2006 (FTE)( 1) 
			  As at 31 March:  Police officers per 100,000 
			 1997 188 
			 1998 184 
			 1999 179 
			 2000 172 
			 2001 179 
			 2002 187 
			 2003 196 
			 2004 197 
			 2005 194 
			 2006 196 
			 (1 )Full Time Equivalent figures rounded to the nearest whole number. Figures up to 31 March 2002 exclude staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. The figures for 31 March 2003 onwards figures include those on career breaks or maternity/paternity  leave. This accounts for a small proportion of the increase between 31 March 2002 and 31 March 2003; the exclusive figure for 31 March 2003 is 195.

Police

David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to change funding for the Avon and Somerset constabulary to reflect  (a) relative crime levels and  (b) the conclusions of recent departmental reviews of force funding; and if he will make a statement.

Tony McNulty: The police funding formula provides an assessment of the relative need of each police force in England and Wales. This assessment is based on the social characteristics of each police authority which are considered to affect the level of demand for police services in the community. To avoid penalising police authorities that successfully reduce crime, actual crime is not used in determining relative need.
	The police funding formula was reviewed in consultation with the police service in 2005 and a revised formula was implemented for the 2006-07 settlement. This revision incorporated more recent data from the 2001 census, changes in the structure of policing and more up-to-date analysis of how the characteristics of different areas affect policing demands. To avoid large changes in grant resulting from this revision, each police authority was guaranteed an increase in formula grant of at least 3.1 per cent. in 2006-07 and 3.6 per cent. in 2007-08.

Police

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of inspected cases falling under  (a) 6a,  (b) 6b and  (c) 7a of the Police Performance Assessments framework were for conditional caution under the meaning of Part 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, broken down by police authority.

Tony McNulty: The Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) uses aggregate data for sanction detections (7a) and offences brought to justice (6a and 6b). There are no centrally collected data available on conditional cautions for the 2005-06 period, as the disposal was only in use in a limited number of Basic Command Units. Data will be collected centrally and published for the period 2006-07.

Police

Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what police response times to emergency calls were for each police authority in each year since 2000.

Tony McNulty: Data on the time taken to respond to emergency calls are not collected centrally. This is essentially an operational matter for the chief constable of each force.

Police

Hugo Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received from the BBC requesting permission to film community support officers.

Tony McNulty: The Home Office have received no representations from the BBC requesting permission to film community support officers.

Police Mergers

Ashok Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much each police authority has  (a) claimed and  (b) been granted to cover costs of changes to the plans to merge police forces.

Tony McNulty: The following table shows the amounts claimed by and offered to each of the police authorities in England and Wales in respect of the additional costs incurred on the preparatory work for police force mergers. These were included in a written statement on this subject laid before the House on 30 October 2006.
	
		
			  Amounts sought and payments offered to police authorities in England and Wales in respect of preparations for police force mergers 
			   
			  Police authority  Amount sought  Payment to be made 
			 Bedfordshire 23,430 23,430 
			 Cambridgeshire 242,714 100,000 
			 Cheshire 339,767 100,000 
			 City   
			 Cleveland 189,986 100,000 
			 Cumbria 271,000 271,000 
			 Derbyshire 58,469 (1)35,782 
			 Dorset (for the five SW forces) 140,836 140,836 
			 Durham 67,155 67,155 
			 Dyfed-Powys 225,891 100,000 
			 Essex 169,870 100,000 
			 GMP 75,810 75,810 
			 Gwent 96,467 96,467 
			 Hampshire 11,495 11,495 
			 Hertfordshire 144,327 100,000 
			 Humberside 119,730 100,000 
			 Kent 152,042 100,000 
			 Lancashire 725,000 725,000 
			 Leicestershire 37,232 37,232 
			 Lincolnshire 287,600 287,600 
			 Merseyside 266,357 100,000 
			 Metropolitan   
			 Norfolk 135,729 100,000 
			 North Wales 245,020 100,000 
			 North Yorkshire 167,808 100,000 
			 Northamptonshire 85,800 85,800 
			 Northumbria 38,021 38,021 
			 Nottinghamshire 46,200 46,200 
			 South Wales 326,944 100,000 
			 South Yorkshire 30,652 30,652 
			 Staffordshire 56,317 56,317 
			 Suffolk 45,483 45,483 
			 Surrey 649,311 100,000 
			 Sussex 519,879 100,000 
			 Thames Valley 33,860 33,860 
			 Warwickshire 174,608 100,000 
			 West Mercia 89,061 89,061 
			 West Midlands 117,591 100,000 
			 West Yorkshire 104,569 100,000 
			 Total 6,512,030 3,997,200 
			 (1) Legal costs of judicial review proceedings will not be met by the Home Office.

Prisons

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was of prison-to- prison transfers in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The Inter-Prison Transfer contract covers most inter-prison movements. The agreed contract price is based on an annual operating cost and therefore not directly related to volume or distance travelled.
	
		
			   Contract price () 
			 2000 5,122,113 
			 2001 5,251,113 
			 2002 5,501,626 
			 2003 5,647,335 
			 2004 5,798,057 
			 2005 5,989,562 
			 2006 7,673,608 
		
	
	There are also a number of prisoner moves between prisons that are arranged locally. The details of these are not held centrally.

Prisons

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether prisoners are being informed of the option that exists by which their property can be posted to them in certain circumstances; and when this facility was first made available.

Gerry Sutcliffe: In normal circumstances, property will accompany a prisoner to court. If the prisoner decides to leave their property at the prison they are discharged from then they must make their own arrangements to collect it.
	However, Operation Safeguard, which commenced on 12 October 2006, has necessitated that local arrangements be made which may mean that property is retained at the prison. Prisoners are informed of options available on how they can reclaim their property, which may vary from establishment to establishment.
	A Prison Service Instruction on Operational Safeguards is being prepared which will allow prisoners going to court to indicate in writing how they wish their property to be returned to them in event of their discharge.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of prisoners are serving life sentences.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information from the Prison IT system, contained in Table 1 of The National Offender Management Service Population in Custody Monthly Tables for England and Wales, for the end of September 2006, and available at the following website:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/prissep06.pdf
	This shows that there were 7,824 indeterminate sentence prisoners (i.e. those offenders sentenced to life imprisonment and Imprisonment for Public Protection) held in prison establishments in England and Wales on 30 September 2006, out of a total prison population of 79,853. This equates to 9.8 per cent. of the total prison population.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners there are per 100,000 of the population.

Gerry Sutcliffe: From information held on the Prison IT system, and published in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, table 8.17, there were 142 prisoners per 100,000 population at 31 August 2004.
	This table can be found at the website:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1705section8.xls
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are substance-dependent.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information is not collated centrally. Prisons rely on epidemiological surveys to determine levels of substance dependence.
	Studies show that around 55 per cent. of those received into custody are problematic drug-users (PDUs)with 80 per cent. reporting some misuse; in certain prisons, up to 80 per cent. test positive for opiates on reception.
	Some 63 per cent. of sentenced males and 39 per cent. of sentenced females reported a hazardous drinking pattern in the year before coming into prison. The numbers who are physically dependent on alcohol, which can be defined as those who need alcohol detoxification, are much lower at around 7 per cent.
	A high number of those drinking hazardously will also use alcohol as part of poly-drug misuse.

Prisons

Nigel Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many mothers in prison have children in the care of  (a) social services and  (b) another guardian.

Gerry Sutcliffe: This information is not kept routinely by the Prison Service. A resettlement survey commissioned in 2003-04 by the then Custody to Work Unit, Prison Service, showed that half of all female prisoners had dependent children (including stepchildren) under 18, and 46 per cent. of those women had lived with at least one dependent child before custody.

Restorative Justice/Reoffending

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what pilots researching the relationship between restorative justice and the prevention of reoffending his Department has funded since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: About 5 million from the Crime Reduction Programme was used to fund restorative justice pilots, and the research, which ran from 2001 to 2004 and dealt mainly with adult offenders at different stages of the criminal justice system. These pilots are being evaluated by the university of Sheffield. Two reports have already been published about the setting up of the pilots and the delivery of the restorative justice process. A third report on victim and offender satisfaction is being finalised and the fourth, and final, report looking at the impact of restorative justice on reoffending and its cost-effectiveness will be available next year.

Restorative Justice/Reoffending

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of victims of youth crime participated in restorative processes in each year between 2003 and 2006, broken down by police authority; and if he will make a statement.

Gerry Sutcliffe: The Home Office does not collect statistics on the percentage of victims of youth crime who participate in restorative processes so is unable to provide the information requested.
	The Youth Justice Board does collect data and the national and regional figures are included in its annual statistics.
	The YJB has set youth offending teams in England and Wales the target of ensuring that 75 per cent. of victims of all youth crime referred to YOTs are offered the opportunity to participate, if they wish, in restorative processes with the aim of increasing victim satisfaction.

Road Safety

Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many endorsements were imposed as a result of fixed penalty notices in England and Wales for  (a) driving while disqualified by order of court,  (b) attempting to drive while disqualified by order of court,  (c) driving without reasonable consideration for other road users,  (d) using a vehicle with defective brakes,  (e) using a vehicle with defective tyres and  (f) other offences between 1997 and 2005, broken down by police force area.

Tony McNulty: The Motoring Offences Fixed Penalty Notices collection held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform identifies endorsable offences only by offence group. As such we are unable to separately identify endorsements for individual offences. However the offences of  (a) driving while disqualified,  (b) attempting to drive while disqualified and  (c) driving without reasonable consideration for other road users are not fixed penalty offences.
	Data on fixed penalty notices issued for endorsable offences by offence group and police force area can be found in the annual Home Office publication Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales, Supplementary tables, Table 20(b) data. The latest available are for 2004. Copies of this annual publication are available in the Library. They can also be accessed on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website at:
	www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.htm
	Data for 2005 will be available in 2007.

Staff Relocation

Louise Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many jobs in his Department have been relocated to  (a) Liverpool and  (b) elsewhere as a result of the Lyons Review; and on how many occasions Liverpool has been considered for the relocation of staff under this programme.

Liam Byrne: holding answer 28 November 2006
	Updated figures for the Department will be published in the Home Office's Autumn Performance Report. These will include some Immigration and Nationality Directorate posts based in Merseyside.
	Given its existing presence in Liverpool, the Department regularly considers Liverpool as a possible area for relocation.
	The latest published figure for Home Office relocations is 470 posts, as included in the Departmental Report in July 2006. This includes four new posts based in Liverpool.

National Infrastructure Security

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who is responsible for detecting and reporting electronic attacks on critical national infrastructure.

Tony McNulty: Those organisations which run the critical services within the CNI are responsible for detecting attacks on their systems.
	Government CNI organisations are obliged to report attacks to the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC), and NISCC encourages private sector organisations to do the same.
	NISCC provides the best possible advice on protective security measures to minimise the risk of electronic attack against the CNI.

Women's National Commission

Ben Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding his Department provided to the Women's National Commission to carry out research on Muslim women's attitude to becoming more active in their communities.

Tony McNulty: This matter was dealt with by the Cohesion and Faith Unit which is now part of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Xenotransplantation

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many applications for a licence to conduct xenotransplantation experiments involving pig organs in the UK have been  (a) submitted,  (b) rejected and  (c) granted since January 2001;
	(2)  when he last met the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority.

Joan Ryan: holding answer 28 November 2006
	Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of tissue and organs between different species. The United Kingdom Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority (UKXIRA) advises the Government on the transplantation of animal tissue into humans.
	No applications for a licence to conduct xenotransplantation experiments involving pig organs in the United Kingdom have been submitted, rejected or approved since January 2001.
	Home Office Ministers have never been invited to meet with the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority, but Home Office officials last attended a UKXIRA meeting on 9 May 2006.

Young Offenders

Rudi Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juveniles were received into each young offender institution in each month in each year since 2000.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Information on the number of juvenile offenders received into prison establishments under an immediate custodial sentence in each year since 2000, and into secure children's homes and secure training establishments, is contained in the following tables. The data are not shown by month of reception because the numbers are small and their accuracy at this level of detail cannot be guaranteed.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual, the figures may not be accurate to that level.
	
		
			  Young people under 18 years old received into secure children's homes and secure training centres between 2000 and 2005 
			  Number 
			   2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
			 Total for year 420 725 648 712 656 624 
			
			  Secure children's homes for receipt of young people( 1)  on reception   
			 Aldine House 4 12 13 7 18 15 
			 Atkinson Unit 15 29 24 24 29 34 
			 Aycliffe Young People's Centre 38 75 64 69 79 78 
			 Barton Moss Secure Unit 24 33 42 48 52 49 
			 Clare Lodge 14 25 19 15 6 0 
			 Clayfields House 22 39 31 27 17 30 
			 Dyson Hall 10 17 17 35 44 41 
			 Earlswood Secure Unit 2 3 5 4 4 0 
			 East Moor 33 86 76 78 77 80 
			 Hillside 23 33 29 30 37 46 
			 Kyloe House 7 7 7 5 9 10 
			 Leverton Secure Unit 5 8 10 11 0 1 
			 Lincolnshire Secure Unit 3 8 17 19 23 22 
			 Market Street 10 19 14 15 5 0 
			 Orchard Lodge 15 24 19 25 31 21 
			 Red Bank Community Home 32 67 62 64 69 85 
			 Redsands Secure Unit 9 16 11 6 0 0 
			 St. John's Centre (Tiffield) 16 32 25 27 36 5 
			 St. Catherine's Centre for Girls 3 6 1 7 2 7 
			 Sutton Place 15 12 16 29 24 26 
			 Swanwick Lodge 11 21 17 25 23 34 
			 Vinney Green 20 46 42 40 46 40 
			 Watling House 8 6 4 2 0 0 
			 Briars Hey 15 12 12 13 0 0 
			 Dales House 13 10 14 21 4 0 
			 Stamford House 27 30 33 47 9 0 
			 Stoke House 17 25 5 0 0 0 
			 Thornbury House 9 24 19 19 12 0 
		
	
	
		
			  Number 
			   2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005 
			 Total for year 397 519 506 600 658 814 
			
			  Secure training centres for receipt of young people( 1)  on reception   
			 Hassockfield STC 122 198 173 151 151 149 
			 Medway 134 164 154 260 234 241 
			 Oakhill STC(2) 68 196 
			 Rainsbrook 141 157 179 189 205 228 
			 (1) Young people is taken to mean under 18 at the time of sentencing. (2) Opened August 2004.  Source: Youth Justice Board.

HEALTH

Accident And Emergency Departments

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average travelling distance is to a 24-hour accident and emergency department.

Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Accident And Emergency Departments

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which hospitals situated in towns or cities with populations over 30,000 people  (a) do and  (b) do not have a 24-hour accident and emergency department.

Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not available centrally.

Accident And Emergency Departments

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many 24-hour accident and emergency departments there are in each primary care trust area in England.

Rosie Winterton: Information is not collected centrally in the format requested.

Acute Hospitals

Francis Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new acute hospital projects of more than 300 beds have been approved since 1 June 2006, and how many are being financed by the private finance initiative.

Andy Burnham: Since 1 June 2006, six acute hospital project schemes have been approved to proceed from the private finance initiative (PFI) reappraisal exercise. Four of these contain proposals for more than 300 beds.
	The PFI schemes for St. Helens and Knowsley Hospitals National Health Service Trust (capital value 338 million) and the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust (capital value 627 million) had their full business cases approved and reached financial close on or after 1 June 2006. Both schemes will deliver more than 300 beds each.

Audiology Services

Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is to see an audiologist for patients living in Tendring; and how many people in Tendring are waiting to see an audiologist.

Ivan Lewis: The number of patients waiting for all audiology tests is not available. The number of patients waiting for pure tone audiometry tests are shown in the table.
	
		
			  Waiting times for pure tone audiometry at Tendring primary care trust, September 2006 
			   Number 
			 Total waiting 191 
			   
			  Waiting (weeks)  
			 013 128 
			 1326 46 
			 2652 17 
			 52 0 
			   
			 Median (weeks) 10.2

Audiology Services

Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many audiologists there are working for the NHS in Tendring; and how many were working in each of the last five years.

Ivan Lewis: Information is not available in the format requested. The following table shows the number of audiology staff employed in Essex by national health service trusts and in England for 2004 and 2005 as data was not collected prior to 2004.
	
		
			  NHS hospital and community health services: qualified non medical audiology staff in England and each specified strategic health authority area and organisation as at 30 September 2005 
			  Headcount 
			 2004  2005 
			 England total   1,665 1,720 
			  Of which: 
			 East of England Strategic Health Authority  Q35 123 146 
			  Of which: 
			 Essex   25 43 
			  Basildon and Thurrock General Hospital NHS Trust RDD 5 8 
			  Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust RDE  8 
			  Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust RQ8 5 7 
			  Southend Hospital NHS Trust RAJ 12 16 
			  The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust RQW 3 4 
			  Notes: 1. Non-medical audiology staff belong to the healthcare scientist census group, and could not be separately identified prior to the 2004 non-medical workforce census. 2. Figures for Essex are based on the old Essex SHA area.  Source: The Information Centre for health and social care non-medical workforce census.

Audiology Services

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government plan to appoint a single preferred national bidder to provide the 300,000 audiology patient pathways; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: Discussions with local national health service commissioners, to ensure that the audiology procurement best meets their needs, are ongoing. It is anticipated, however, that the procurement may be divided into a number of geographical regions, encompassing several strategic health authorities, each served by a single supplier if this offers value for money to the NHS.

Audiology Services

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government plan for the additional 300,000 audiology patient pathways to be procured through the ISTC Phase 2 programme; whether funding has been ring-fenced for the procurement of these 300,000 pathways; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: The audiology procurement is one of the procurements within the independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) phase 2 programme. Overall, it is expected that the next phase of the programme will deliver 3 billion of elective services and 1 billion of diagnostic services per annum. The audiology procurement will contribute towards these values.
	The funding for services procured through the ISTC programme is held by local commissioners. Primary care trusts will agree local demand for audiology services and confirm the scheme is affordable within the context of their own resources before the procurement is advertised.

East of England SHA

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the projected cost of running and administering the East of England strategic health authority is in  (a) 2006-07 and  (b) 2007-08.

Andy Burnham: The merger of Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire strategic health authorities has resulted in the newly formed NHS East of England inheriting a budget of 15.8 million for the financial year 2006-07. The budget for 2007-08 has not yet been agreed by the Department for the next financial year.

Equality and Diversity

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps her Department is taking to promote equality and diversity in the NHS.

Rosie Winterton: The Department has undertaken a number of activities to promote equality and diversity in the national health service and particularly to support the NHS in meeting its responsibilities under the various equality legislation on race, disability and gender as well as regulations on age, religion and belief and sexual orientation. The Department's strategy for promoting equality and diversity in the NHS is to set action on these issues within the overall framework for planning and delivering the Department's and NHS's priorities.
	The Department has a detailed programme of work under way to take forward equality and human rights commitments which includes the following.
	We are working with inspectorate bodies and equality commissions to ensure that equality and human rights issues are integrated into inspection arrangements and relevant sector specific guidance provided to help the health sector promote equality issues.
	Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care (DRE) is an action plan for reform of NHS mental health servicesworking towards equality of access, equality of experience and equality of outcome for all mental health service users. DRE's programme of change consists of three main building blocks: more appropriate and response services, community engagement and better information. As part of the DRE programme the Department commissioned the Healthcare Commission, in partnership with the Mental Health Act Commission, to undertake an annual census of ethnicity of mental health in- patients.
	The race for health programme is primary care trust-led with support from the Department equality and human rights group. It convenes a network of 14 PCTs around the country, working in partnership with local black and minority ethnic communities to improve health, modernise services, increase choice and create greater diversity within the NHS work force. Race for health also disseminates examples of good practice across the NHS and recently published Towards Race Equality in Health: A Guide to Policy and Good Practice for Commissioning Services. Plans are under way to recruit a new wave of PCTs to the programme.
	The pacesetters programme is headed by the equality and human rights group. This programme places equality at the heart of NHS business, organisational objectives and core values, impacting upon future health planning, performance management and delivery. The group is working with up to five SHAs to deliver equality and diversity improvements and innovations resulting in:
	patient and user involvement in the design and delivery of services;
	reduced health inequalities for patients and service users;
	working environments that are fair and free of discrimination.
	The participating SHAs are launching their local involvement in the programme from November 2006; developing and publishing Promoting Equality and Human Rights in the NHSa Guide for Board Members aimed at helping non-executive board members take forward the issues of equality and human rights with regard to patients and the work force. The guide outlines the legislative framework and the principles that underpin equality and human rights. It demonstrates the business case for promoting and delivering equality and human rights, and includes a set of prompts for boards to take stock of how fairly their organisations treat their patients and workforce. The guide is currently being revised to incorporate current and imminent legislation and will extend to include all board members not just non-executive directors. This should be available at the end of 2006;
	The leadership and race equality action plan (LREAP) is a 10-point action plan launched in February 2004. LREAP is aimed at NHS chief executives and their boards with a specific focus on health services and outcomes and challenging them to pay greater attention to meeting the service needs of people from ethnic minorities and making equality issues an important dimension of NHS strategy. A revised LREAP will be integrated into an NHS leadership document that is currently being developed;
	The Department is working with external lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) stakeholders on the development and implementation of a sexual orientation and gender identity equality strategy. A sexual orientation and gender identity advisory group is assisting with this work;
	The Department's equality and human rights group is leading a project aimed at supporting the equalities agenda through the development of single equality schemes (SES) in the NHS. The project has been set up in anticipation of possible further duties in relation to age, religion and belief and sexual orientation and plans to encourage work to pull together the different equality strands without compromising any of the individual elements in a cross-cutting and coherent fashion. Project leads provide support in terms of expertise in the field of equalities legislation, facilitating partnerships and joined-up working, research, sharing of good practice and producing guidance. Project leads also provide specific guidance on the disability and gender duties respectively. The organisations involved are committed to producing a single equality scheme and will collectively produce learning that identifies the different steps required to meet both the current and likely duties which will be meaningful to the host of diverse organisations within the NHS. Development and outcomes from all the programmes outlined above will be shared and disseminated throughout the NHS;
	The Mosaic project was established by the Department of Health in 2004 to promote race equality through and in procurement. The project focuses on three main areas:
	working with NHS organisations and staff, especially on workforce development issues;
	working with NHS prime or first tier suppliers and getting them to understand the legal responsibility to the RRA and review their own work practices in relation to BME communities;
	promoting the use of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and BME suppliers in particular, as a means of promoting race equality.
	The Department in collaboration with NHS Employers has published a disability equality guide which gives practical best practice advice on how NHS organisations might produce a disability equality scheme that sets out how they will meet their statutory duty to promote disability equality. The disability equality duty comes into effect on 4 December 2006.
	In preparation for the gender equality duty which comes into force in April 2007, the Department is in the process of developing a gender equality duty guide to assist NHS organisations meet the duties of the gender duty legislation.

Health Service Reorganisation

Francis Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what payments for  (a) redundancies and  (b) additional pension contributions have been made as a result of (i) strategic health authority (SHA) and (ii) primary care trust (PCT) reorganisations by each PCT and SHA in England.

Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.

HIV/Tuberculosis/Malaria

Philip Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of  (a) HIV,  (b) tuberculosis and  (c) malaria were diagnosed in Shropshire in each year since 1997; and how many of these were of people (i) born in the UK and (ii) not born in the UK.

Caroline Flint: The information requested is provided in the tables:
	 HIV
	Adults aged 15 and over diagnosed with HIV. By year and county of diagnosis (Shropshire), for the period 1997 to 2005. (These data represent the cumulative total as at the end of September 2006).
	
		
			   Number 
			 Total cases reported (1) 90 
			 (1) These data include individuals who have an existing diagnosed HIV infection and may include occasional duplicates for the same individual where records with different information could not be reconciled. The data are based on reports received up to the end of September 2006 and these numbers may rise as further reports are received (particularly true for more recent years).  Source: Health Protection Agency 
		
	
	Adults aged 15 and over diagnosed with HIV. By year, county of diagnosis (Shropshire) and probable country of birth, for the period 2000 to 2005. (These data represent the cumulative total as at the end of September 2006. Data on country of birth were not collected prior to 2000).
	
		
			  Country of birth( 1)  Total 
			 Born in the United Kingdom 35 
			 Not born in the UK 30 
			 Not reported 13 
			 (1) These data include individuals who have an existing diagnosed HIV infection and may include occasional duplicates for the same individual where records with different information could not be reconciled. The data are based on reports received up to the end of September 2006 and these numbers may rise as further reports are received (particularly true for more recent years).  Source:  Health Protection Agency 
		
	
	 Tuberculosis
	Cases of tuberculosis in Shropshire 1998 to 2005 by country of birth.
	
		
			  Country of birth  Total 
			 Total cases reported 149 
			 UK born 79 
			 Non UK born 43 
			 Not reported 27 
			  Data sources:  National Tuberculosis Survey (1998), and HPA enhanced tuberculosis surveillance (1999 to 2005). 1997 data were collected through the Statutory Notification of Infectious Disease system and are not comparable with the later data collection system, and have therefore not been included. 2006 data not yet available. 
		
	
	 Malaria
	Cases of malaria reported to HPA malaria reference laboratory diagnosed in Shropshire by country of birth; 1997 to 2005.
	
		
			  Country of birth  Total 
			 Total cases reported 63 
			 UK born 26 
			 Non UK born 30 
			 Not reported 7 
			  Note: Aggregated data have been used for each infection rather than annual data in view of the risk of deductive disclosure.  Source: HPA malaria reference laboratory.

HIV/Tuberculosis/Malaria

Philip Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients in each GP practice in Shropshire, including those in Telford and Wrekin, were diagnosed with tuberculosis in each year from 1996 to 2005.

Caroline Flint: Data by GP practice are not available centrally.

Maternity Care

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what guidance is given to hospital trusts on the minimum advisable distance between a consultant-led maternity unit and midwife-led maternity units;
	(2)  what discussions she has had with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on a national strategy for maternity services.

Ivan Lewis: Neither the Department nor the Royal Colleges have prepared guidance on the minimum advisable distance between a consultant-led maternity unit and midwife-led maternity units. Distance alone should not be the only factor as safety, risk and travelling times are equally important. Any woman and maternity professional discussing the planned place of birth should share relevant general information, then during labour make continuing decisions taking this into account. Ultimately, care should be provided within a framework that ensures that the safety of the mother and baby are paramount and that considers factors such as distance, travel times and weather conditions.
	The Department has been working on a delivery plan for maternity services. A maternity standard implementation advisory group, on which many stakeholders, including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), other royal colleges and voluntary organisations are represented, has been established and has helped develop the delivery plan. We have already held one bilateral meeting with the RCOG with a further one scheduled later in November jointly with the Royal College of Midwives and the National Childbirth Trust, specifically to discuss this plan further. A meeting between the president of the RCOG and Mr. Lewis, the Minister for Care Services, will be held on 27 November.

Matrons

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many modern matrons were employed in the NHS in each year since 2001.

Rosie Winterton: The number of modern matrons were recorded for the first time in the 2005 national health service work force census which showed there were 1,606 modern matrons in the NHS in England.

Mental Health Services

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds are available for working-age mental health patients in Gloucestershire in  (a) low,  (b) medium and  (c) high-security units; and on how many occasions capacity has been reached or exceeded in the last two years.

Ivan Lewis: Gloucestershire does not have any local providers of high-security services as these are only provided on three sites, which are Ashworth, Rampton and Broadmoor hospitals.
	The average daily number of available and occupied secure unit mental health beds in Gloucestershire for the years 2004-05 and 2005-06 is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Org code  Organisation  Number 
			   Gloucestershire partnerships national health service trust  
			   2005-06  
			 RTQ Available beds 12 
			  Occupied beds 10 
			  Occupation rate (percentage) 83.3 
			
			   2004-05  
			  Available beds 12 
			  Occupied beds 10 
			  Occupation Rate (percentage) 83.3 
			  Notes: 1. The latest available data are for 2005-06. 2. The Department collects the total number of available and occupied bed days in the financial year. The average daily number of available and occupied beds is calculated from these figures, so that we do not have data on the actual occupancy rate on a given day. 3. The Department collects data on all secure unit beds, with no breakdown between low, medium and high security beds.  Source: Department of Health dataset KH03

MRI Waiting Times

Andrew Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the waiting time is for an MRI scan to investigate a trapped nerve in the neck at the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.
	(2)  what the waiting time is for an MRI scan for a trapped nerve in the shoulder at the Coventry and Walsgrave hospitals.

Andy Burnham: The information is not available in the format requested. The latest available information on waiting times for MRI scans is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Diagnostic provider waiting statistics for the University Hospital of Warwickshire NHS TrustMRI-scan (week ending 30 September 2006) 
			  Time in weeks  Number 
			 01 143 
			 1 2 123 
			 23 150 
			 34 122 
			 45 79 
			 56 119 
			 67 125 
			 78 80 
			 89 116 
			 910 102 
			 1011 84 
			 11 12 58 
			 1213 101 
			 1314 83 
			 1415 90 
			 1516 61 
			 1617 44 
			 1718 5 
			 18+ 2 
			 Total 1,687

Neurology/Epilepsy

Nick Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trained paediatric neurologists there are in England; and how many specialise in epilepsy.

Rosie Winterton: As at 30 September 2005 there were 6,680 medical staff identified as working in the paediatric specialty in the national health service in England, of whom 59 were employed in paediatric neurology.
	Information on the number of paediatric neurologists specialising in epilepsy is not collected centrally.

Neurology/Epilepsy

Nick Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what progress her Department's Government action plan on epilepsy services in England has made in addressing the problems raised in the National Sentinel Audit of Epilepsy-Related Deaths in May 2002;
	(2)  which  (a) primary care trusts and  (b) strategic health authorities in (i) Greater London, broken down by London borough, and (ii) England have (A) taken up her Department's suggestion that they review local epilepsy services in the light of the National Sentinel Audit of Epilepsy-Related Deaths findings and (B) addressed any shortfalls as part of their local delivery plans;
	(3)  what discussions her Department has had with the Royal Colleges on informing epilepsy patients about the management of and the risks associated with the condition.

Ivan Lewis: Although the specific cause of sudden death by epilepsy (SUDEP) is unknown, the risks of sudden death are considered to be greater for those patients whose epilepsy is poorly controlled. Action to reduce SUDEP has therefore concentrated on improving epilepsy services in general, raising awareness of SUDEP among those living with epilepsy and their families, and the introduction of new more effective drugs to control seizures.
	We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to produce clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, management and treatment of epilepsy. This guidance, published in October 2004, specifically covers the importance of informing patients and their families of the risks of sudden death in epilepsy. In addition, we have made a grant of almost 290,000 to the National Society for Epilepsy to improve support and information for people with epilepsy and their families through their Epilepsy Information Network.
	NICE has also published guidance on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of new epilepsy drugs in adults (March 2004) and children (April 2004).
	The Department published the national service framework (NSF) for long-term conditions in March 2005. This focuses on improving neurological services across the country for a range of conditions, including epilepsy.
	We have made no assessment of which primary care trusts and strategic health authorities have reviewed their local epilepsy plans in light of the National Sentinel report. All local health bodies are expected to have plans to ensure they can implement the NSF for long-term conditions, and their performance towards implementation will be assessed by the Healthcare Commission. In addition, all health professionals are expected to comply with NICE clinical guidelines on the treatment of epilepsy.
	We have had no discussions with the Royal Colleges on the need to inform those living with epilepsy of the risks associated with this condition. However, the NICE guidance on epilepsy specifically mentions the importance of providing information about the individual's relative risk of SUDEP. This information should be part of the counselling checklist for adults with epilepsy and their families and/or carers.

NHS Compulsory Redundancies

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she plans to continue to publish the number of compulsory redundancies made by NHS organisations in England at six-monthly intervals.

Rosie Winterton: The Department plans to publish the number of compulsory redundancies made by the national health service organisations on a quarterly basis.

NHS Hospitals (Contract Costs)

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total cost of providing  (a) cleaning and  (b) catering services to NHS hospitals in each financial year since 1997-98.

Andy Burnham: The information is in the following table.
	
		
			   million 
			   Total expenditure on cleaning services  Total gross cost of patient catering services 
			 2000-01 403  
			 2001-02 418 284 
			 2002-03 460 334 
			 2003-04 493 366 
			 2004-05 536 (1)279 
			 2005-06 616 (1)240 
			 (1) The data provided was collected from the NHS on a mandatory basis with the exception of the patient catering services cost for 2004-05 and 2005-06 which was provided voluntarily. The figures for these years are therefore not complete and not directly comparable with previous years.  Notes: 1. Both services include the salary and non-salary component costs. The cost of patient catering services excludes the cost of catering services provided to staff. 2. The data provided has not been amended centrally and the accuracy and completeness of this data is the responsibility of the provider organisation.

NHS Service Level Agreements

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the service level agreements setting out expected outcomes to be delivered from the NHS that are being drawn up by the 10 strategic health authorities will include standards for patient care in the areas of  (a) dermatology and  (b) sexual health.

Caroline Flint: Contracts or service level agreements are agreed between primary care trusts (as commissioners) and service providers, which include national health service foundation trusts, and independent and third sector providers. Strategic health authorities are not party to these agreements.
	Among other things the contract will require primary care trusts and providers to agree local standards for quality improvement and patient experience. There will be no specific requirement to include dermatology and sexual health in these standards, but it is likely that some organisations will focus on these areas.

Patient Safety

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact on patient safety of her Department's recent guidance on reducing the tariff rate for emergency spells above a set threshold.

Andy Burnham: The reduced emergency tariff is intended to manage financial risk between commissioners and providers of care, and thereby ensure the continued delivery of high-quality services to patients. No such assessment is needed.

Primary Care Trusts

John Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how she plans to reflect the impact of A8 migrants in the allocation of funds to primary care trusts.

Andy Burnham: Migration is taken account of within the population base used for revenue allocations to primary care trusts (PCTs). For allocations post 2007-08, the advisory committee on resource allocation (ACRA) is looking again at the population base for revenue allocations.

Royal Free Hospital

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what plans the Royal Free NHS Trust has to expand services at Edgware hospital; and if she will make a statement;
	(2)  what progress has been made with the reconfiguration of the estate of the Royal Free Hospital Trust; and if she will make a statement;
	(3)  if she will ensure that the principles set out in the joint statement on Barnet, Enfield and Haringey's clinical strategy are included as one of the options in the formal consultation on its strategy; and if she will make a statement;
	(4)  if she will review the catchment area of the Royal Free Hospital, with a view to extending it northwards in Barnet; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Clinical Services Strategy is currently going through an involvement exercise looking at the way in which services are provided. This will involve Barnet, Chase Farm, North Middlesex and the Royal Free Hospitals. Formal consultation is currently scheduled to commence in February 2007.

Royal Free Hospital

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the Royal Free Hospital trust's financial position; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: The following table shows the 2005-06 final outturn position and the 2006-07 month 3 and month 6 forecast outturn positions for the Royal Free Hospital national health service trust.
	
		
			  Organisation name: Royal free Hampstead NHS trust 
			(000) 
			  2005-06  
			 Annual accounts surplus/(deficit) (4,845) 
			   
			  2006-07  
			 Month 3 forecast outturn surplus/(deficit) 16,200 
			 Month 6 forecast outturn surplus/(deficit) 16,200 
			  Sources: 2005-06 audited summarisation schedules 2006-07 monthly financial monitoring returns

Royal Free Hospital

Andrew Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consideration she is giving to the relocation of the Royal national orthopaedic hospital, Stanmore onto the Royal Free Hospital trust site; and if she will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: NHS London is currently evaluating all the options and will make its recommendations in due course.

School Nurses

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons some school nurses are employed by NHS trusts rather than primary care trusts.

Rosie Winterton: The majority of school nurses are employed by primary care trusts. A small number are employed by hospital trusts for historical reasons or because the hospital is the main provider of child health services.

Spine Computer System

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which  (a) organisations,  (b) institutions and  (c) private companies have access to data stored on the NHS care records on the Spine computer system.

Caroline Flint: Access to records will not be permitted to organisations not involved in delivering care to national health service patients. Individuals who are involved in providing care will be able to access relevant systems and records as required by their role, but only if they have a current secure smartcard and valid pass code. No one should be able to access clinical data unless they are working in a team that is providing care to the patient concerned or checking the quality of care provided.

Spine Computer System

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what safeguards are in place to correct errors in patient records in the NHS care records on the Spine computer system.

Caroline Flint: Individuals have the right to have factual errors corrected and this is normally accommodated by national health service staff making a note of the error and adding correct details to a record. Removing entries from records is not straightforward for medico-legal reasons as the record is often the only evidence that patients and clinicians have to challenge or defend actions taken. However, the Department will shortly be consulting on new clinically-led processes for correcting errors in the NHS care records service.

Tuberculosis

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will set a Public Service Agreement target to reduce the prevalence of TB in England.

Caroline Flint: Decisions on future public service agreement targets across Government for the next planning period covering the years 2008-09 to 2010-11 will be made in due course.

Tuberculosis

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many specialist TB nursing posts there are in the NHS; how many such posts are vacant; and if she will make a statement.

Rosie Winterton: Information is not collected centrally on specific nursing specialties. Workforce planning is a matter for local determination, based on service need.

Tuberculosis

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made of the priority given by those commissioning services to the diagnosis and treatment of TB; and if she will make a statement.

Caroline Flint: Commissioners are responsible for commissioning services appropriate to their assessment of local needs within the resources available.
	The Department is developing a toolkit to help the national health service to implement the key points of the Chief Medical Officer's action plan Stopping Tuberculosis in England (October 2004) through effective commissioning and delivery of services. The toolkit, which will be finalised shortly, will recommend that TB services should follow the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideline published March 2006 when diagnosing and treating patients with TB.

Tuberculosis

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many TB clinical networks have been established in England.

Caroline Flint: The development of clinical networks for tuberculosis services are the responsibility of local service providers and primary care trusts. There are no comprehensive national data on the number of tuberculosis clinical networks currently established in England.

Waiting Times

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for breast cancer genetic test results in  (a) England and  (b) Lancashire in the last period for which figures are available.

Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect data centrally on waiting times for genetic tests for inherited forms of breast cancer.
	However, the Government recognise that some patients have experienced long waits for genetic tests in the past and this will have caused stress and anxiety. This is unacceptable.
	So, to improve access and cut waiting times, the genetics White Paper Our Inheritance, Our Futurerealising the potential of genetics in the NHS, published in June 2003, committed up to 18 million for NHS genetics laboratories in England. This major investment is boosting capacity and supporting modernisation in genetics laboratories, thus helping them meet the rising demand for genetic tests.
	To ensure that this investment resulted in real patient benefit, the White Paper set out new standards for genetic test turnaround times, to be achieved by the end of 2006. These are:
	within three days where the result is needed urgently, for example, for prenatal diagnosis;
	within two weeks where the potential genetic mutation is already known, for example, because another family member has already been tested; and
	within eight weeks for unknown mutations in a large gene.
	This money was allocated during the last two financial years (2004 to 2006), and laboratories are working hard to get their new facilities up to speed to meet these standards.

Walsgrave Hospital

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients the NHS treated for lung disease at Walsgrave Hospital in each year since 1997.

Ivan Lewis: The information is not available in the format requested. The following table provides the count of finished consultant episodes with primary diagnosis codes associated with lung disease for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust for 1998-99 to 2004-05.
	
		
			  Count of finished consultant episodes with primary diagnosis codes associated with lung disease for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire National Health Service Trust for 1998-99 to 2004-05 
			   Finished consultant episodes 
			 1998-99 2,798 
			 1999-2000 2,730 
			 2000-01 2,467 
			 2001-02 2,361 
			 2002-03 2,451 
			 2003-04 2,616 
			 2004-05 3,176 
			  Notes: 1. Diagnosis (primary diagnosis) The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. ICD-10 primary diagnosis codes used: Please note: Lung disease is a very non-specific term and encompasses many ICD-10 code categories and codes. A15 Respiratory TB bacteriologically and historically confirmed A16 Respiratory TB not confirmed bacteriologically or histologically A19 Miliary tuberculosis J10 Influenza due to identified influenza virus J11 Influenzavirus not identified J12 Viral pneumonia, not elsewhere classified J13 Pneumonia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae J14 Pneumonia due to Haemophilus influenzae J15 Bacterial pneumonia not elsewhere classified J16 Pneumonia due to other infectious organisms NEC J18 Pneumoniaorganism unspecified J20 Acute bronchitis J21 Acute bronchiolitis J22 Unspecified acute lower respiratory infection J40 Bronchitis not specified as acute or chronic J41 Simple and mucopurulent chronic bronchitis J42 Unspecified chronic bronchitis J43 Emphysema J44 Other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease J45 Asthma J46 Status asthmaticus J47 Bronchiectasis J60 Coalworker's pneumoconiosis J61 Pneumoconiosis due to asbestos and other mineral fibres J62 Pneumoconiosis due to dust containing silica J63 Pneumoconiosis due to other inorganic dusts J64 Unspecified pneumoconiosis J65 Pneumoconiosis associated with tuberculosis J66 Airway disease due to specific organic dust J67 Hypersensitivity pneumonitis due to organic dust J68 Respiratory conditions due to inhalation of chemicals, gases, fumes and vapours J69 Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids J70 Respiratory conditions due to other external agents J80 Adult respiratory distress syndrome J81 Pulmonary oedema J82 Pulmonary eosinophilia, not elsewhere classified J84 Other interstitial pulmonary diseases J85 Abscess of lung and mediastinum J86 Pyothorax J90 Pleural effusion not elsewhere classified J92 Pleural plaque J93 Pneumothorax J94 Other pleural conditions J95 Postprocedural respiratory disorders NEC J96 Respiratory failure not elsewhere classified J98 Other respiratory disorders P22 Respiratory distress of newborn P23 Congenital pneumonia P24 Neonatal aspiration syndromes P27 Chronic respiratory disease originating in the perinatal period P28 Other respiratory conditions originating in the perinatal period Q33 Congenital malformations of lung Q34 Other congenital malformations of respiratory system O99.5 Diseases of the respiratory system complicating pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium 2. Finished consultant episode (FCE) An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please not that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year. 3. Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed). 4. Data quality Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by over 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. The Health and Social Care Information Centre liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain.  Sources: 1. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) 2. The Information Centre for Health and Social Care

Walsgrave Hospital

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is for  (a) all minor surgery and  (b) circumcision at Walsgrave Hospital.

Andy Burnham: Waiting times data at procedure level are not available in the format requested. However, waiting times information on the waiting times for circumcisions at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire National Health Service Trust is set out in the table.
	
		
			   Number 
			 Total episodes 208 
			 Mean waiting time 83 
			 Median waiting time 68 
			  Notes: 1. Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 2. Main operation The main operation is the first recorded operation in the HES data set and is usually the most resource intensive procedure performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main operation when looking at admission details, eg time waited, but the figures for all operations count of episodes give a more complete count of episodes with an operation. OPCS CODE: N303 Circumcision 3.Time waited (days) Time waited statistics from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are not the same as the published waiting list statistics. HES provides counts and time waited for all patients admitted to hospital within a given period whereas the published waiting list statistics count those waiting for treatment on a specific date and how long they have been on the waiting list. Also, HES calculates the time waited as the difference between the admission and decision to admit dates. Unlike published waiting list statistics this is not adjusted for self-deferrals or periods of medical/social suspension.  Sources: 1. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) 2. The Information Centre for health and social care

Walsgrave Hospital

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is for an MRI scan for a trapped nerve in the shoulder at Walsgrave Hospital.

Andy Burnham: The information is not available in the format requested. The latest available information on waiting times for MRI scans is shown in the table.
	
		
			  Diagnostic provider waiting statistics for the University Hospital of Warwickshire NHS TrustMRI-scan (week ending 30 September 2006) 
			  Time in weeks  Number 
			 01 143 
			 12 123 
			 23 150 
			 34 122 
			 45 79 
			 56 119 
			 67 125 
			 78 80 
			 89 116 
			 910 102 
			 1011 84 
			 1K12 58 
			 1213 101 
			 1314 83 
			 1415 90 
			 1516 61 
			 1617 44 
			 1718 5 
			 18+ 2 
			 Total 1,687 
			  Source: Monthly Diagnostics Collection

West Suffolk Hospital

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the catchment area is of the West Suffolk Hospital.

Andy Burnham: The catchment population for the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust is estimated to be between 234,000 and 250,000.